Schlapp runs the ACU, the organization most widely known for staging the Conservative Political Action Conference, known as CPAC. Schlapp and the group occasionally butted heads with Donald Trump before he was elected president in 2016, but have since become fierce loyalists. After serving in the George W. Bush White House as director of political affairs, Schlapp took over the ACU in 2014. His wife, Mercedes Schlapp, who was also named in the lawsuit, worked as Trump’s communications director for nearly two years, from 2017 to 2019.
At the time of the alleged assault, Huffman was working for the Georgia GOP and Republican Herschel Walker’s Senate campaign. Huffman told CNN that Schlapp made unwanted sexual advances, including groping and fondling his groin without consent, on the ride back from two Atlanta-area bars on October 19, 2022. Schlapp then allegedly invited Huffman, who was assigned to drive the ACU chairman, to join him in his hotel room. Huffman said he had declined the offer, and hours later reported the incident to senior campaign staff.
The case was scheduled to go to trial in early June. By agreeing to the deal now, Schlapp and his lawyers prevented potentially damaging testimony from becoming public, including a deposition by Charlie Gerow, a former vice chair of CPAC and ACU board member who expressed serious concerns about Schlapp’s behavior in his resignation letter, as well as two witnesses who had previously accused Schlapp of sexual misconduct.
Schlapp will also be spared from having to testify in open court.
In addition, the settlement headed off new testimony from multiple witnesses who were scheduled to be deposed, including former officials from Walker’s 2022 Senate campaign and other witnesses with similar, contemporaneous knowledge about the alleged assault.