Police have reportedly obtained a second sex video in their probe into rape accusations against Florida Republicans’ chairman Christian Ziegler.
The video shows Ziegler’s wife Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler and an unidentified woman and was found after police searched Ziegler’s phone and email account, according to the Florida Trident.
It would be the second video found by Sarasota police in the investigation into Ziegler, who is accused of raping a friend after she backed out of a threesome with him and his wife. Ziegler allegedly admitted to recording the encounter in October but he claims it was consensual.
It’s not clear whether the woman in the second video is the accuser who appears in the first. Bridget told police she and her husband had had a previous sexual encounter with the accuser.
Since the accusations emerged, Christian Ziegler has held onto his post as GOP chairman, but was stripped of his salary and authority last Sunday.
Police have reportedly obtained a second sex video in their probe into rape accusations against Florida Republicans’ chairman Christian Ziegler, seen with his wife Bridget
The video reportedly shows Ziegler’s wife Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler and an unidentified woman
Meanwhile the Sarasota County School Board passed a resolution to demand Bridget step down from the board. However, the board can not force her to resign and she has given no indication she plans to leave her post.
The resolution was authored by board Chair Karen Rose, who said in an email that she is ‘shocked and deeply saddened’ by the rape allegations involving Ziegler’s husband and the couple’s admissions about having a three-way sexual encounter previously with the accuser.
Prior to the meeting, several dozen people marched outside carrying signs and chanting, ‘Hey hey, ho ho, Bridget Ziegler has got to go.’ Among the signs’ slogans were ‘Ban Bridget, not books’ and ‘Real women aren’t homophobes.’
Police records saying that the Zieglers had group sex with a woman have led Democrats and gay rights leaders to accuse the couple of hypocrisy, given that an organization Bridget Ziegler cofounded – Moms for Liberty – has joined DeSantis and the Florida GOP in pushing back against LGBTQ+ causes.
DailyMail.com has reached out to the Sarasota police department and to the Zieglers for comment on this story.
A search warrant in the case revealed that Ziegler told detectives that he did have sex with the accuser on October 2 but that it was consensual.
The longtime GOP activist ascended to the state party’s top post in February. He has claimed he is innocent and victim of a political hit.
The rape accusation against Ziegler became public after the Florida Center for Government Accountability, an investigative news organization, obtained a police report and the search warrant affidavits detailing the allegations.
The Sarasota County School Board passed a resolution to demand Bridget step down from the board. However, the board can not force her to resign
Since the accusations emerged, Christian Ziegler has held onto his post as GOP chairman, but was stripped of his salary and authority last Sunday
Ziegler previously earned the endorsement of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for her Sarasota school board seat. He has since encouraged her husband to step down amid the sex scandal
The accuser, who has known Ziegler for 20 years, told police that when Bridget backed out of the plan to have sex, she texted Christian saying: ‘Sorry I was mostly in for her,’ according to an affidavit.
Later that evening the woman claims that as she went to leave her apartment she discovered Ziegler outside in the hallway – and alleges he then entered her property and raped her.
Weeks later, detectives began to monitor calls and messages sent by Christian Ziegler to the accuser, according to the affidavit.
‘Where r u? Wanna meet and chat? Worried about you. You are my friend,’ Ziegler allegedly wrote in one message via Instagram.
‘Hell no not after what you did to me,’ the woman responded. ‘Do you not understand I am terrified of you?’
A 911 call, obtained by the Florida Center for Government Accountability, made by a friend of the alleged victim’s reveals she confided in the friend about being raped.
‘She told me she was raped,’ the friend informed the dispatcher on October 4.
‘She’s saying she’s scared, that the person who raped her came to her house, so she’s scared to leave… I’m worried about her right now,’ the friend explained.
In text and phone conversations monitored by investigators, Ziegler offered the woman ‘financial help’ before becoming suspicious that they were being recorded.