AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
The man who accused Matt Schlapp of grabbing his crotch received a $480,000 settlement in exchange for dropping his lawsuit, according to CNN.
Carlton Huffman, a former campaign staffer for U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker, said last year Schlapp “grabbed my junk and pummeled it at length.” Schlapp is the chair of the American Conservative Union, which organizes the Conservative Political Action Conference. On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Schlapp issued a statement from Huffman.
“The claims made in my lawsuits were the result of a complete misunderstanding, and I regret that the lawsuit caused pain to the Schlapp family,” it read. “The Schlapps have advised that the statements made about me were the result of a misunderstanding, which was regrettable.”
The statement added, “Neither the Schlapps nor the ACU paid me anything to dismiss my claims against them.”
However, CNN reported on Wednesday:
But multiple sources familiar with the allegations and legal proceedings told CNN that Huffman did, in fact, receive a financial settlement via an insurance company.
When reached for comment, Huffman told CNN, “I am only legally allowed to say five words, and that is ‘We have resolved our differences.’ Those are the only five words that I’m legally allowed to say.”
His lawyer, Tim Hyland, also declined to comment on any financial settlement terms or other details of the case, saying only, “The parties have resolved their differences.”Asked whether there had been a settlement, the spokesman for Schlapp’s legal team, Mark Corallo, told CNN, “We refer you to Mr. Huffman’s statement.”
A source told CNN Schlapp settled because he and his wife Mercedes Schlapp “did not want this to go to trial, they simply did not want the testimony that would come out.”
