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Originally published February 18, 2024:
Schlapp plaintiff, Huffman, reached out to prominent gay former Republican on night of alleged assault
Depositions scheduled for top conservatives in fast-moving sex-assault lawsuit
ALEXANDRIA, Va. _ The lawyers for a Republican operative who has accused Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Chairman Matt Schlapp of sexual assault and defamation, have scheduled depositions from a number of top conservatives as they speed toward a June trial start.
Tim Miller, a prominent openly gay former Republican operative now a writer at The Bulwark, was subpoenaed recently to give a deposition in the case, according to court records. Miller told 24sight Saturday that he believed it was because the plaintiff, Carlton Huffman, reached out to him the night of the alleged assault to ask his advice on what to do.
Fox News host Sean Hannity is scheduled to be deposed in the suit March 22, according to court records. An amended complaint against Schlapp details an email from Schlapp to Hannity, although it’s not clear what the deposition would focus on. A source close to Hannity noted that the Fox News host doesn’t use email and hasn’t for many years.
Asked about the subpoena to Hannity to provide testimony, a Fox News spokesperson told 24sight, “Sean Hannity has not been served with anything.”
And Ian Walters, a former longtime confidant of Schlapp and CPAC staffer, was subpoenaed to provide a deposition in the case on Feb. 27, just a few days after the close of the annual CPAC conference in suburban Washington, which starts this week. Walters declined comment for this piece.
A lawyer for Huffman declined comment.
Schlapp and his team have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
“Huffman and his lawyer have used a strategy of leaks to friendly, left-wing media in the desperate hope of influencing potential jurors,” Schlapp spokesman Mark Corallo said in a statement to 24sight. “Through it all, the Schlapps have played by the rules, confident they will prevail in court when the facts of Huffman’s past actions and sordid record are made fully public.”
Huffman himself was accused of sexual assault last year by two young women, who obtained restraining orders against him, according to a report from CNN. However no criminal charges were ever filed against Huffman. Huffman denied any wrongdoing in a comment to CNN.
CPAC has long been one of the top events for recruiting conservative activists, dating back to its formation in the wake of Barry Goldwater’s 1964 loss to Lyndon Baines Johnson. But in recent years, the organization has kicked out conservatives not explicitly aligned with former President Donald Trump.
Trump is scheduled to headline the group’s annual event in suburban Washington later this week, which coincides with the South Carolina Republican primary.
The sexual assault allegations against Schlapp have rocked CPAC since they first came out. Fox Nation, which had been a bedrock of support for the event (paying $250,000 to sponsor the event in 2021), withdrew its support for last year’s conference and is not listed as a supporter of this year’s annual conference.
Schlapp, who used to be a regular commentator on Fox News, hasn’t appeared on the channel since the allegations surfaced against him. He and his wife, former Trump White House director of strategic communications Mercedes Schlapp, are now regulars on Newsmax.
Huffman was working on the Senate campaign of Herschel Walker in 2022 when Schlapp allegedly groped his crotch and invited him to come up to his room, according to the Daily Beast, which broke the news in January 2023.
The trial is tentatively scheduled to start on June 3 in Virginia, according to the court docket.