Florida GOP Chairman Christian Ziegler addresses attendees at the Republican Party of Florida Freedom Summit at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Kissimmee.
Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Sarasota police recorded 3 calls between Christian Ziegler and his rape accuser, a court filing shows.The Florida GOP chairman offered his accuser money, and changed the subject to his upcoming haircut.”You are my friend,” Ziegler kept saying, confirming they’d been intimate but not admitting rape.
Sarasota police recorded three controlled phone calls between suspended Florida GOP chairman Christian Ziegler and the woman who is accusing him of rape, according to search warrant affidavits unsealed last month.
In the calls, Ziegler appears to confirm that he and the woman had been intimate on October 2, during an incident at her apartment that he maintains was consensual.
Ziegler makes no admissions of sexual misconduct, according to excerpts and descriptions of Instagram messages and phone calls recorded by the Sarasota Police Department that were included in three recently-unsealed search warrants.
Instead, the GOP chair repeatedly responds to the woman’s accusations by telling her “You are my friend.”
At one point, he “asked the victim if she needed financial help or anything else,” the search warrants say. Twice he tried to change the subject by telling her about a haircut he was getting.
The Florida Republican Party voted two weeks ago to censure Ziegler over the scandal, which includes salacious details over a prior, 2022 threesome between him, his accuser, and his wife, Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler. The party has cut his annual salary from $12,000 to just $1. He retains his title.
An offer of money, and talk of a haircut
“I’m not okay with what happened the other day between us,” the accuser tells Ziegler in a private Instagram message, the first in a series of police-controlled messages and phone calls excerpted in the search warrants.
“Oh,” Ziegler responds. “That’s not good. You are my friend. Known ya for like twenty years now. Lol.”
Bridget Ziegler is the co-founder of Moms for Liberty.
Matt Rourke/AP
Ziegler then “goes on to talk about how long they have been friends.”
“Yeah I know but that was not cool,” she tells him, to which Ziegler then responds again, “Your [sic] my friend I actually like you as a person, so sorry you got upset, but I can leave you alone if you prefer.”
Ziegler “then tried to change the subject by talking about getting a haircut,” the first of two times he did so, according to the filing.
The exchange eventually moves from Instagram to a series of three telephone calls from Ziegler to the woman, all recorded by Saratoga Police.
In the final call, Ziegler answers “Those are big words” when the woman outright accuses him of sexual assault for the first time.
“Please don’t, no I didn’t. You invited me in, that’s it. I did not at all. I never want you to feel that way,” Ziegler protests during the call.
It’s at this point “Christian asked the victim if she needed financial help or anything else,” the search warrants say.
Ziegler then “apologized for whatever is going on,” and “told the victim he did not need any drama.”
The call ends after “he asked her if she was recording him.”
A new accusation of “video voyeurism”
The most recently unsealed search warrant — addressed to Meta, the parent company of Instagram — reveals that Ziegler’s communications are being sought as part of an investigation into whether he committed “video voyeurism” by allegedly uploading images of the alleged rape he’d recorded on his cell phone.
Under Florida law, it is illegal to secretly record an intimate encounter.
Florida Party of Florida Chairman Christian Ziegler addresses attendees at the Republican Party of Florida Freedom Summit, in November 2023 in Kissimmee, Florida.
Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP
Ziegler’s accuser, whose name has not been revealed, is a woman whom he and his wife, Bridget, had a 2022 threesome with at the couple’s home.
The October 2 encounter had been planned as a second threesome among Ziegler, his wife, and his accuser, police say in the filing.
Bridget Ziegler told police that the couple had a threesome with the woman in October 2022, according to police.
But at around 2:15 p.m. that day, Ziegler told the woman through Instagram, “Prob just me this time now,” indicating his wife was suddenly unavailable.
The woman then cancelled, explaining, “Sorry I was mostly in for her,” referring to Bridget Ziegler.
Nevertheless, Ziegler arrived at the woman’s apartment, alone, just 15 minutes later, entering her apartment when she opened her door to go walk her dog, police said in the filing
The GOP chair was captured on surveillance camera footage arriving at the accuser’s apartment complex “in his gray Ford truck” at around 2:30 p.m. and leaving 40 minutes later, according to one of the search warrants.
The search warrants say the woman only reported the incident to the police two days later. But soon after the incident she was “very emotional and distraught” in telling her twin sister she’d been raped, the search warrant says.
“The victim stated that when Christian came over, she was not in a place to consent because it was her day off and she had been drinking Tequila all day,” one of the search warrants says.
“The victim advised Christian did not wear a condom,” it adds.
The search warrants, dated from early December, also seek Ziegler’s cell phone and Google account records. They were first reported by the Florida Trident.
Police have not charged Ziegler with a crime. The Florida GOP’s executive board will meet on January 8 to vote on whether to remove him as party chairman.