The Republican political activist who accused Conservative Political Action Conference Chairman Matt Schlapp of sexual assault has dropped his case, clearing the influential conservative.
Carlton Huffman, 40, had charged without proof that Schlapp groped him during a 2022 election trip while the accuser was working for Herschel Walker’s Senate campaign in Georgia.
He sought to pursue $9 million in a lawsuit anonymously, but a judge said he couldn’t. Last year, he revealed himself.
But today he dropped his case, according to a statement provided to Mark Corallo, Schlapp’s representative.
“I am discontinuing all of my lawsuits. The claims made in my lawsuits were the result of a complete misunderstanding, and I regret that the lawsuit caused pain to the Schlapp family,” Huffman said. “The Schlapps have advised that the statements made about me were the result of a misunderstanding, which was regrettable. Neither the Schlapps nor the [American Conservative Union] paid me anything to dismiss my claims against them.”
After making his claims against Schlapp, two women accused Huffman of assault.
Schlapp, a father of five daughters and married to political adviser Mercedes Schlapp, vehemently denied the charges from the beginning.
In a statement to Secrets, Matt Schlapp said: “From the beginning, I asserted my innocence. Our family was attacked, especially by a left-wing media that is focused on the destruction of conservatives regardless of the truth and the facts. But we emerge from this ordeal stronger as husband and wife, stronger as parents to our five daughters, stronger as friends to those who stood by us. Our faith in God sustained us. Our understanding of what is truly important in life — our faith in God and loving our family and friends — has been brought into sharp focus as never before.”
He added, “We also learned that the left is waging a relentless war against those of us who still hold fast to the principles of America’s founding and the liberty that has endured throughout our 248-year history. The left no longer leaves disagreements on the political battlefield. Increasingly, they have gained a stranglehold on the mainstream media, social media and the legal system which they use to try to silence, shame and bankrupt Americans who have contrary, yet correct viewpoints.”
Over the past year, the establishment media have played up the charges, but they did not deter Matt Schlapp from expanding his efforts to make CPAC conventions global affairs.
“Going forward, our eyes are wide open, we understand the struggle better and we learned we must stand our ground and fight or else the haters on the left will destroy every conservative and ultimately our nation,” Matt Schlapp said today.
In dropping the case against Matt Schlapp, Huffman also ended his cases against CPAC, the affiliated American Conservative Union, Mercedes Schlapp, and Republican fundraiser Caroline Wren, a Matt Schlapp ally who named Huffman on X when the case first made headlines.
The case drew wide attention and was used by Democrats and CPAC critics to attack Schlapp, whose conferences have long been must-attend meetings for Republican activists and presidential candidates.
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Schlapp’s attorney Ben Chew, who also represented Johnny Depp, said there was nothing to it from the beginning.
“In my 35 years of practicing law, I have never seen such a case of malicious piling on by non-parties such as that which Matt and Mercedes Schlapp suffered,” he said in a statement to Secrets. “We believe it ran the gamut from selective leaks from non-party insiders with chips on their shoulders to others who did not prove worthy of the Schlapps’ trust, and of course, certain agenda-driven media who appeared all too eager to destroy conservatives like the Schlapps. Indeed, the actions of these non-parties seem to provide a text-book example of the politics of personal destruction. We believe the Schlapps have every reason to feel aggrieved by the conduct of these non-parties, and it should be no surprise should they seek vindication.”
