CNN
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Florida’s Republican Social gathering has eliminated Christian Ziegler as occasion chairman amid a intercourse scandal and a sexual assault investigation.
“Nobody voted for Christian Ziegler,” mentioned Blaise Ingoglia, former Republican Social gathering of Florida Chairman and present member of the Florida Senate.
Ziegler, who has not been criminally charged, didn’t attend the assembly. CNN reached out to Ziegler for remark.
The elimination got here after state occasion management suspended Ziegler and removed all his authority final month.
Florida occasion members voted to switch Ziegler with Evan Energy, who had been the occasion vice’s chairman. Florida Congressmen Matt Gaetz and Byron Donalds attended the assembly, together with Florida’s Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nuñez.
Ziegler has been underneath investigation by the Sarasota Police Division since October. Based on a search warrant affidavit, which CNN first obtained from the Florida Middle for Authorities Accountability, Ziegler and his spouse, Bridget, deliberate a three-way sexual encounter with the alleged sufferer on the day of the alleged assault on October 2, 2023, and “when the sufferer realized that Bridget couldn’t make it, she modified her thoughts and canceled with Christian.” The Zieglers allegedly had a earlier consensual sexual relationship with the accuser, in accordance with the affidavit.
Surveillance video confirmed Christian Ziegler arriving on the alleged sufferer’s residence on the day of the alleged assault, the affidavit says. The alleged sufferer mentioned he entered the house and raped her on a bar stool, in accordance with the affidavit.
Police in Sarasota are additionally investigating if Ziegler broke Florida’s video voyeurism legal guidelines by recording the sexual encounter on the middle of the investigation.
Ziegler has mentioned the intercourse was consensual. In an announcement to CNN final month, his legal professional, Derek Byrd, mentioned he could be cleared of wrongdoing. “We’re assured that after the police investigation is concluded that no costs will likely be filed and Mr. Ziegler will likely be utterly exonerated,” Byrd mentioned.
Ziegler had faced calls to resign from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Rick Scott and Gaetz. Final month, Florida’s Republican Social gathering decreased Ziegler’s wage to $1 yearly and took away his means to rent or fireplace workers; communicate on behalf of the Florida GOP; or increase funds for the occasion, at the same time as he retained his title as chairman.
The Zieglers are Florida Republican political stalwarts. The couple rose from their base of energy in Sarasota County into vital statewide figures underneath DeSantis.
Christian Ziegler turned chairman of the Florida GOP in February after years working in native politics, together with as a county commissioner and as state occasion vice chairman. Bridget Ziegler was appointed to the Sarasota County Faculty Board in 2014 and has gained reelection thrice. The varsity board voted final month to ask her to resign. The transfer is non binding and he or she has given no indication that she plans to step down.
Bridget Ziegler has been on the forefront of the cultural battles DeSantis has waged inside Florida public faculties. She co-founded Moms for Liberty, a conservative mother and father’ rights group that has led the efforts in Florida and elsewhere to take away books from lecture rooms they deem inappropriate for teenagers. DeSantis named her to the board that now oversees the Walt Disney Firm’s special taxing district in Central Florida amid his conflict with the leisure large over a state regulation that restricted how sexual orientation and gender identification could possibly be taught within the classroom.
This story has been up to date with further particulars.
CNN’s Jack Forrest, Daniel Strauss and Allison Gordon contributed to this report.