The Florida GOP has voted to strip authority of its leader and reduce his salary to $1 after he was accused of raping a woman.
An emergency meeting of 40 board members on Sunday began the process of ousting Christian Ziegler, who is facing intense allegations after a woman said he raped her after she canceled plans to have sex with him and his wife, Bridget.
The board will formally consider whether to remove Ziegler as chairman next month.
Sarasota police are investigating the unnamed woman's claim that Ziegler assaulted her after she abstained from sex when she learned Bridget wouldn't be there.
Ziegler, 40, previously said he and his wife were being targeted because they were “such loud political voices” – adding that he would not resign over the allegations.
Florida Republican Party Chairman Christian Ziegler has said he is innocent after a woman claimed he raped her after she canceled plans to have sex with him and his wife
Police are investigating the allegations and have not charged Ziegler with a crime.
Despite the lack of criminality noted so far, insiders say they want Ziegler out because the allegations have ruined his reputation in GOP circles and made him an ineffective fundraiser heading into the 2024 election.
A search warrant revealed that Bridget admitted to police that the couple had a sexual encounter with the accuser last year. Ziegler told investigators that although he had sex with the woman, it was consensual.
According to police documents, Ziegler claimed he filmed the encounter on Oct. 2 before deleting the video and saving it to Google Drive.
In a letter to supporters, Ziegler wrote, “We have a country to save, and I will not allow false accusations of crime to test that mission as I wait for this process to be completed.”
“My family is rock solid. “My wife is behind me 150 percent and we have methods in place to protect our (three) children, just as we have in all previous attacks we have faced.”
The longtime GOP activist rose to the state party's top job in February.
Police files showing that Ziegler had group sex with a woman have led Democrats and gay rights activists to accuse the couple of hypocrisy, as an organization co-founded by Bridget Ziegler – Moms for Liberty – has joined DeSantis and the Florida Republican Party in opposing it to take action against LGBTQ+ concerns.
Bridget Ziegler is also an elected member of the Sarasota County School Board and was appointed by DeSantis to the board that now oversees property development at Walt Disney World.
The rape allegation against Ziegler became public after the Florida Center for Government Accountability, an investigative news organization, obtained a police report and search warrant affidavits detailing the allegations.
The accuser's name is blacked out in the documents.
In the picture: Christian and Bridget Ziegler. Christian Ziegler, 40, is facing serious allegations after a woman said he raped her after she canceled plans to have sex with him and his wife
The accuser, who has known Ziegler for 20 years, told police that when Bridget backed out of the plan to have sex, she texted Christian saying, “Sorry, I was mostly targeting her.” , says an affidavit.
Later that evening, the woman claims that as she was leaving her apartment, she spotted Ziegler outside in the hallway – and claims he then entered her property and raped her.
Weeks later, investigators began monitoring calls and messages Christian Ziegler sent to the accuser, the affidavit said.
'Where are you? Would you like to meet and chat? Worried about you. “You are my friend,” Ziegler allegedly wrote in a message via Instagram.
“Hell no, not after what you did to me,” the woman replied. “Don’t you understand that I’m afraid of you?”
A 911 call obtained by the Florida Center for Government Accountability from a friend of the alleged victim revealed that she had confided in the friend that she had been raped.
“She told me she was raped,” the friend told the dispatcher on Oct. 4.
“She says she's afraid that the person who raped her came to her house, so she's afraid to leave the house… I'm worried about her right now,” the friend explained.
In text and phone conversations monitored by investigators, Ziegler offered the woman “financial help” before becoming suspicious that they were being recorded.