A top leader in the organization that puts on CPAC, the annual extremist clown show, resigned last night, citing financial questions surrounding Matt Schlapp, the organization’s leader. Via the Intelligencer:
Bob Beauprez, the longtime treasurer of the American Conservative Union, said that he was not fully informed about money being paid for chairman Matt Schlapp’s legal defense against a lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault. “I cannot deliver a financial report at the upcoming board meeting with any confidence in the accuracy of the numbers,” Beauprez wrote in a letter to the ACU’s board of directors.
Whoa. Remember back in January, when Republican staffer Carlton Huffman accused sleazy Matt Schlapp of grabbing his junk?
Schlapp, a former top Bush White House staffer who had established himself as a major lobbyist and conservative power broker in Trump’s Washington (his wife, Mercedes, served as a senior staffer in the Trump White House), denies the allegations. The resignation comes at a time of crisis for the group as Schlapp fends off the lawsuit and CPAC’s influence dwindles in the post-Trump era.
Right wing organizations show little interest in cleaning up these little financial scandals, and they’re never held accountable by the membership. So they will almost certainly ride it out. (I mean, Wayne LaPierre is still running the NRA, despite a similar crisis.)
Days after Huffman’s lawsuit was filed, Beauprez, a former Republican congressman, wrote that ACU’s executive committee fronted Schlapp $50,000 so he could immediately retain a lawyer. Schlapp hired Ben Chew, a prominent litigator who recently defended Johnny Depp in his lawsuit against Amber Heard. After some back-and-forth over who should pay future costs, Beauprez wrote he was blindsided when Schlapp told him that he had raised another $270,000 from donors to ACU and its related foundation, ACUF. His shock grew when he said ACU’s lawyer told him in February at CPAC that the money “was already either dispersed [sic] or invoiced.”
Well, kids, what did the nuns always say? That’s right: “Lie down with dogs, rise up with fleas.”
“However great our sympathy,” Beauprez continued, “we cannot avoid our fiduciary responsibilities. A few of us have sought answers to some of what seem to be obvious and necessary questions. As a result, we have been accused of ‘not having Matt’s back’ and ‘trying to stage a leadership coup.’”
The frustration led directly to Beauprez’s resignation, given he is “no longer able to in good faith advocate to donors.” The treasurer compared his role to “that of a mushroom — ‘to be kept in the dark and fed a lot of manure,’” he wrote. “I no longer am willing to comply.”
Poor Bob. Despite his noble intentions, Matt & Co. will cover it up and it will be business as usual — unless he wants to go to the local DA, of course. And how likely is THAT?
