The fallout continues over allegations that Florida GOP Chair Christian Ziegler sexually assaulted a woman involved in a long-term ménage à trois with he and his wife, Moms For Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler.
On Monday, the Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, chapter of Moms For Liberty announced it would be breaking with the national organization. “Our values are not aligning with the national organization,” Chapter President Clarissa Paige told The News-Item, adding that it’s “hard to advocate for parental rights when the co-founder is caught up in the scandal.” Paige did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment from Rolling Stone.
Later on Monday, the Republican Party of Florida called an emergency meeting to discuss Ziegler’s future as party chair. According to a report from The Miami Herald, which obtained a memo from State GOP Vice-Chairman Evan Powers, the meeting will be held on Dec. 17, and Zeigler has declined to attend.
The memo stated that the meeting’s central topic would be whether the party would move to “censure or discipline” Ziegler. The document floated several punitive options, including revoking Ziegler’s authority and pay, as well as the potential of expulsion from both his office and the state Republican Party.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called for Ziegler to voluntarily resign from his post after the allegations broke on Friday. “I think he should step aside and think he should attend to that,” DeSantis told ABC News. “He’s innocent until proven guilty, but we just can’t have a party chair that is under that type of scrutiny.”
Ziegler has vehemently denied the accusations against him, and in a weekend email to state Republicans wrote that “We have a country to save and I am not going to let false allegations of a crime put that mission on the bench as I wait for this process to wrap up.”
Last week, the Florida Center for Governmental Accountability’s news division, The Florida Trident, first reported allegations that Ziegler was being investigated for sexually assaulting a woman involved in a long-term, three-way relationship with himself and his wife. Bridget Ziegler was reportedly not involved in the encounter, and charges have yet to be brought against her husband.
According to a police complaint obtained by the Trident, and sources who spoke to the publication, the woman alleges that Christian Ziegler raped her on Oct. 2 while the pair were alone in her home in Sarasota, Florida. The police report mentions the phrases “raped,” “ sexual assault allegation,” and “sexually battered,” but is otherwise heavily redacted.
A subsequent search warrant, first obtained by The Orlando Sentinel, revealed Bridget Ziegler had admitted to police that she and her husband had had past sexual encounters with the woman, whom Mr. Ziegler has reportedly known for 20 years. The woman had initially agreed to another encounter with the couple but backed out after learning that Bridget Ziegler would not be participating. According to surveillance footage reviewed by authorities, Ziegler showed up at the woman’s residence uninvited, entering the property as she was leaving for a walk. The woman told police that Ziegler had proceeded to sexually assault her in her home. She added that Zigler had not used a condom and that she had been drinking before he arrived at her residence.
Ziegler denies that assault, but admitted to police that the two had had sex, and that he had filmed — and later deleted — portions of their encounter. Police have seized Ziegler’s electronic devices and have executed warrants for his digital records, where a copy of the recording may have been preserved.
Following the Oct. 2 encounter, the woman contacted a relative in a state of distress and informed them that she had been sexually assaulted. On Oct. 4, police were dispatched to the woman’s residence to conduct a wellness check. According to a 911 call obtained by the Trident, the caller stated that the woman hadn’t “shown up for work the past two days and I just got off the phone with her and she sounds drunk and I know she has pain medication on her and she told me that she doesn’t think she can do it anymore.”
“She won’t answer anyone else at work except for me but she told me she was raped yesterday and that she’s scared to leave her house,” the caller told the 911 dispatcher. “She’s saying she’s scared, that the person that raped her came to her house, that she’s scared to leave.”
A rape kit was conducted that same day. According to police reports, as the month progressed, the woman began messaging Ziegler on Instagram, writing that what he had done “wasn’t OK.” When the woman directly accused Ziegler of raping her, the chairman responded that “Those are big words, please don’t, no I didn’t. You invited me in, that’s it. I did not at all, and I never want you to feel that way.”
