Pressure mounts on CPAC chief Matt Schlapp as legal costs spiral (2024)

Blackwell is the fifth board member to depart in recent months, following an exodus of more than half of the staff since 2021. Some former board members are calling for Schlapp’s resignation to protect the reputation of one of the oldest and most prominent institutions in the conservative movement.

“Morton Blackwell resigning is a signal to the entire conservative movement that the game is over,” said Grover Norquist, the well-known anti-tax activist who served on the CPAC board for more than 15 years. “CPAC stopped being a useful part of the movement long ago and now it’s veering toward dysfunctional.”

In a statement, CPAC expressed gratitude for Blackwell’s decades of service and blamed the criticism of Schlapp on “those with an axe to grind.”

“To be clear, CPAC stands in full compliance with all statutes and regulations and any claims to the contrary by a disgruntled former board member are false,” the organization’s statement said. “The full board has been united in its support of the Chairman and the CPAC leadership team.”

Schlapp was sued in January by a Senate campaign staffer who claimed that the longtime Republican power broker groped his crotch during a campaign trip to Atlanta last fall. Schlapp has acknowledged going to two bars that night with the staffer, Carlton Huffman, but has denied any wrongdoing and attacked his accuser’s credibility.

The ACU’s payments for Schlapp’s legal fees in the case exceeded $1 million as of August, as the discovery process was only beginning, according to the resignation letter from former vice chairman Charlie Gerow that recently was filed as part of the litigation in Alexandria Circuit Court. When board treasurer Bob Beauprez resigned in May, saying he could no longer vouch for the organization’s financial statements, he also sounded the alarm about Schlapp’s legal fees.

“Any settlement of upwards of a couple of million dollars plus the accumulated legal expenses … would break the organization, not to mention the reputational damage,” he wrote.

It is common for nonprofits to cover officials from liability while they are conducting official business. In his resignation letter, Gerow said he was never provided with proof, demanded by the board in June, of Schlapp’s pledge to reimburse the organization if it was determined that the allegations arose from conduct outside his professional responsibilities.

“Tragically, for those who are encouraging Matt to ‘fight this to the end’ the costs are already staggering,” Gerow wrote in the letter.

James Lacy, a lawyer and expert on nonprofits who served on the ACU board for decades until 2017, argued that the organization has no obligation to pay for Schlapp’s legal defense. The alleged misconduct occurred late at night and not at a sanctioned CPAC event, said Lacy, who said he has discussed with other former board members making a public statement calling for Schlapp’s resignation.

“The conduct at issue isn’t something ACU should be responsible for,” Lacy said. “It’s a big mistake because it has the effect of implicating ACU in the conflict, plus it’s a financial burden. The appropriate people to pay for the defense are the Schlapps themselves,” he said, referring to Schlapp and his wife, Mercedes Schlapp, who also works for CPAC and is named in Huffman’s lawsuit.

The ACU and its related organizations are not defendants in the lawsuit. The organization’s statement said that indemnifying top officials is “normal business” and required by its bylaws.

In the ongoing litigation, Huffman’s attorney subpoenaed two other witnesses who may be asked to testify about other misconduct allegations against Schlapp. As The Post reported in August, those incidents involve an attempt to kiss a staffer and an unwanted physical advance on someone else’s employee during a CPAC business trip, according to people familiar with the incidents. Schlapp has not commented on those allegations. Matt Smith, a member of the ACU executive committee, has said they were false.

Several former board members — including the two preceding chairmen — said Schlapp should step down or expressed grave concerns about his leadership in recent interviews with The Post.

“There’s enough out there in the public eye to warrant not only transparency but also consequences,” said Al Cardenas, who served as chairman immediately before Schlapp and previously led the Florida Republican Party. “It’s time for damage control if ACU is going to continue to be a viable entity. For the benefit of the ACU and its future, there’s no other solution than to elect new leadership.”

Since Schlapp became chairman in 2014, board members who questioned his stewardship have quit or felt pressure to resign, said David A. Keene, who served as chairman for more than two decades before Cardenas.

“Dissent is not tolerated. … If all of this had happened at some other point in the past, there would have already have been in an intervention,” Keene said. “The board needs to be thinking about the importance of what they do to the movement as a whole.”

CPAC has long been a must-stop for Republican candidates eyeing higher office, and Schlapp helped build the conference into a global brand, with spinoff gatherings around the world. He also has been credited with putting the organization on more solid financial footing over the past decade.

“I think they’ve done everything by the book,” said Republican pollster Jim McLaughlin, a board member who stands by Schlapp. “Matt has always impressed me as a good marketer and a good communications person who believes in the cause. He’s really taken the organization to another level.”

But Schlapp has also faced criticism for moving the group away from its roots in the conservative movement and aligning it too closely with the donor class and far-right wing of former president Donald Trump’s political base. Some corporate sponsors have backed away, and ticket sales were slow at this year’s flagship gathering in Washington, D.C., which was scheduled shortly after the sexual misconduct claims became public.

“It’s a disaster. He’s tried to do damage control and it hasn’t worked,” said author and presidential historian Craig Shirley, who served on the ACU board in the 1980s and 1990s. “The ACU is supposed to be a populist conservative organization built around issues, not around personalities. Conservative philosophy is more important than any one individual.”