GOP staffer now suing Matt and Mercedes Schlapp for sexual battery and defamation

Mercedes and Matt Schlapp

 If you thought the Matt Schlapp scandal was fading away,  you're wrong. 

From CNN:

The Republican campaign staffer who has accused Matt Schlapp, a high-profile conservative activist, of sexual assault is now suing Schlapp and his wife, Mercedes, for more than $9 million. The sexual battery civil lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the Virginia Circuit Court in Alexandria, also accuses both Schlapps of defamation and of conspiracy to impugn the accuser. 

 The complaint recounts accusations made by a Republican strategist, a male in his late 30s, who alleged that Matt Schlapp fondled him without his consent as he drove Schlapp back to his hotel in Georgia last October. The staffer was working for the Georgia GOP and Herschel Walker’s Senate campaign and had been assigned to drive Schlapp to campaign events in the Atlanta area. The plaintiff, who is listed as John Doe in the lawsuit, alleges that in the wake of his coming forward there were “dishonest efforts” by the Schlapps and “others associated with and acting in concert with them, to discredit Mr. Doe.”

According to Raw Story, Schlapp's wife is included in the lawsuit due to alleged comments she made:

"The lawsuit accuses Mr. Schlapp of defamation by pointing to Mr. Spies’s initial statement that described the accusations as false, personal attacks. The lawsuit argues that Ms. Schlapp defamed the Walker staff member by telling neighbors that he was a 'troubled individual' who had been fired from previous jobs for lying and for making false statements on his résumé. The message was shared on a group text with neighbors, the plaintiff said." 

 Earlier on Tuesday before the lawsuit was announced, the Schlapps commented on the allegations through their attorney

“This anonymous complaint demonstrates the accuser’s real agenda, working in concert with Daily Beast to attack and harm the Schlapp family. The complaint is false, and the Schlapp family is suffering unbearable pain and stress due to the false allegation from an anonymous individual,” Charlie Spies, a lawyer representing Schlapp and his wife, wrote.