WASHINGTON — Matt Schrup, one of America’s most prominent conservative leaders and former President Donald Trump’s biggest ally, led the campaign for Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker in October. Accused of sexually molesting an aide.
“He reached between my legs and caressed me,” the former Walker staffer told NBC News in a telephone interview Thursday night. to stop the shrap. NBC News has withheld the staffer’s name at his request because it fears that accusations against a powerful Republican could undermine his own career in Republican politics.
Schlapp, the president of the American Conservative Coalition, is married to former Trump White House aide Mercedes Schlapp. His organization hosts the Conservative Political Action Conference, an important testing ground for Republican presidential candidates.
Schrup did not respond to text messages seeking comment, including one detailing each point in the accusers’ story. did not respond immediately. However, a spy told The Daily Beast, which first reported the staffer’s story, that Shrup denied them.
A senior Walker campaign official confirmed that the aide shared the allegations with his then-boss.
“The morning after the incident, I was told about it,” he said, adding that campaign officials had discussed the issue and planned to keep the aide from having to pick Schrup up again.
On October 19, at an event in Perry, Georgia, about 100 miles south of Atlanta, Schrup hit Walker’s hasting. A mid-level aide, Walker, was assigned to Chauffeur Schrup and that night, he invited him to a drinking party at his restaurant in Buckhead, Buckhead, Atlanta, at his restaurant, staff said. He believed that more face-to-face time would help cement a professional connection with him, one of the party’s most influential figures.
Schrup apologized that the bar was “dead” when the two men started drinking. I took Shrup to Manuel’s Tavern.
After drinking Tito’s vodka in the middle of the night, Schrup began “invading my personal space” at the second bar, staff said. The staff member said that he had run into a , prompting Shrup to ask him what he had.
Deputy “Sig Sauer” was surprised Schrup seemed unfamiliar with the name of the gun, given the CPAC’s emphasis on Second Amendment rights. Schrup, who grew up in one Wichita, explained that he had no experience with firearms, staffers said.
“Are you uncomfortable looking at me?” Schlapp’s later question made the aide even more uncomfortable than before, he said. Immediately, he told Shrup that they were early in the morning, best to call it night.
As the staffer was driving from Manuel’s Tavern down the John Lewis Freedom Parkway toward the intersection of Interstate 20 and Interstate 85, Schlapp began to caress his leg. The two men were on their way to the Hilton Garden Inn at the Atlanta airport, about 15 minutes away, with little traffic, according to the report.
“From Manuel’s Tavern to the Hilton Garden Inn at the Atlanta airport, he literally had his hands on me,” staff said in a video recorded early in the morning of Oct. 20, just hours after the incident. rice field. “He at CPAC Matt Schlapp grabbed my crap and threw it to the ground.”The staff didn’t release the video, but shared it with NBC News.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t say ‘no’ or ‘stop,'” the staffer said in the video, reminiscing in an interview with NBC News. I know it wasn’t the progress I was hoping for.”
When the two arrived at the hotel, Schrup reportedly invited the staff to his room. The staff declined. Within hours, around 12:45 a.m., staff began recording a video of him recounting what he said, which he shared with NBC News. He reached out to senior campaign staff later that morning to tell them the story. gave advice on how to deal with
“I wanted to say I was uncomfortable with what happened last night,” the staffer texted, according to a screenshot he shared with NBC News. The aide gave me the colleague’s name and phone number.
“Give me a call,” Schlapp replied, according to the screenshot. The staffer provided NBC News with his Schlapp phone number and confirmed the text was from his Schlapp. Screenshots of staff phone records show Schrup called staff repeatedly but did not answer.Includes 2 at 7:53am and 1 at 8:09am
A senior campaign official said Schrup did not attend the event the next morning and did not communicate with the Walker campaign about another ride to the airport.
“Everything makes me physically sick,” said a senior Walker campaign official.
Both the staff and the senior campaign said the Walker campaign provided the staff with lawyers to discuss his legal options, and indicated that the campaign would stand by the decisions he made. has not filed a lawsuit against Schlapp, he said.
A staff member said he had spoken to the news media to inform others of what he described as looting by Schrup.
“If he had given me a polite pass and left it,” the staffer said, “only me, Matt and God would know about it.
