A North Carolina political operative who lost his job in January over a history of racist rhetoric has accused a prominent national conservative leader of groping him on the campaign trail.
Carlton Huffman, who has worked for a number of North Carolina Republicans over the years, says that Matt Schlapp, head of the American Conservative Union, put his hand on his leg for much of a car ride. Then Schlapp groped Huffman’s genitals for “at least five, if not seven, seconds” as Huffman dropped Schlapp off at a hotel, Huffman said. The American Conservative Union puts on the influential Conservative Political Action Conference, which ended Saturday.
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These allegations are at the center of a $9.4 million lawsuit that Huffman filed anonymously against Schlapp last year. Huffman, 39, came forward Wednesday after the judge in the case said he must use his real name to proceed with the suit, The Washington Post reported.
Schlapp, 55, denies the allegations, and in a statement Wednesday his spokesman accused Huffman of “hiding behind anonymity to avoid scrutiny of his unsavory past, troubled work history and issues with honesty.”
“We are confident that when his full record is brought to light in a court of law, we will prevail,” Schlapp spokesman Mark Corallo said.
Huffman himself was accused of sexual assault after an unrelated February incident in Raleigh. Police say they investigated and closed the case without filing charges. Huffman worked briefly for North Carolina Speaker of the House Tim Moore. He resigned in January after statehouse reporters received an anonymous email filled with links to Huffman’s racist web posts and appearances years ago on a radio show that described itself as “pro-white.”
Huffman acknowledged the posts and appearances but said he was ashamed, and that he now disavows those views.
Before working for Moore, Huffman worked on Herschel Walker’s U.S. Senate campaign in Georgia. He ferried Schlapp to a series of events and said that Schlapp placed his hand on his leg for much of the ride, then rubbed his genitals as he dropped him off at a hotel for the night.
“It was in no way consensual,” Huffman told WRAL News Wednesday. “It was unsolicited, unwanted. And he did not ask, he did not intimate, he just did.”
Huffman said he froze up during the groping and that Schlapp invited him to his hotel room. Huffman said he declined, left, told other people about the advance and recorded a video to document the allegations. The Post reported that it reviewed texts, phone logs and videos that broadly match Huffman’s accounts, and that it spoke to six family members or friends and three Walker campaign officials who confirmed that Huffman told them about the alleged incident that night or the next day.
After Walker lost the Georgia Senate race, Huffman took to social media, posting, then deleting, “Don’t let [Schlapp] get too many vodkas in him. It doesn’t end well,” The Post reported.
The lawsuit was filed in January. In February, a woman filed for a restraining order against Huffman, alleging that he assaulted her in his Raleigh home. Huffman was ordered to stay away from her for a year. The paperwork says she accused him of “digitally penetrating plaintiff without plaintiff’s permission” on Feb. 15.
“Although plaintiff was engaged in acts with another person, she didn’t give permission to defendant to engage in the sexual activities,” the protection order states.
Huffman told WRAL News Wednesday that he is “innocent of improper conduct.”
A spokesman for the Raleigh Police Department said the incident was investigated and that the case was closed without charges being filed.