Details of the sexual assault allegation against Florida’s GOP chairman are adding to the party’s unrest

Details of a sexual assault allegation against the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida in an affidavit from state authorities are causing unrest within the party.

The affidavit notes that a woman says the chairman, Christian Ziegler, assaulted her in her apartment in October. It was filed in a Florida court as part of a request for access to electronic communications and recordings on Mr. Ziegler’s Google account.

A police spokeswoman in Sarasota, Florida, confirmed Thursday that there was an “active investigation” involving Mr. Ziegler. No charges have been filed against him and he has denied wrongdoing through his attorney, Derek Byrd, who did not respond to a request for comment Sunday. In an earlier statement, he said that “we are confident that once the police investigation is completed, no charges will be filed and Mr. Ziegler will be fully exonerated.”

In the affidavit, a written statement under sworn, a law enforcement official said the woman and Mr. Ziegler had known each other for 20 years and that she told police she had agreed to an Oct. 2 sexual encounter with Mr. Ziegler. Ziegler and his wife, Bridget Ziegler, an elected member of the Sarasota County School Board and founder of the right-wing national group Moms for Liberty. (She is no longer one of the organization’s officers.)

Mrs. Ziegler said in an interview with authorities that she and her husband had been involved in a sexual encounter with the woman more than a year ago, the affidavit said. When the woman learned that Ms. Ziegler would not be attending the October meeting, the woman said she changed her mind and canceled with Mr. Ziegler, the affidavit said. But the woman said Mr. Ziegler came to her apartment uninvited and sexually assaulted her.

Mr. Ziegler told authorities that the encounter was consensual and that he had taken video of it, the affidavit said. Investigators were unable to locate the video and served a search warrant on Google as part of the affidavit. A Google representative did not respond to a request for comment Sunday evening.

The details from the affidavit, which other news outlets have published, were first reported by the Florida Center for Government Accountability, which describes itself as a nonpartisan nonprofit organization, and later obtained by The New York Times.

On October 4, the woman reported that Mr. Ziegler sexually assaulted her, and she was treated and evaluated at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, according to the affidavit.

In messages between the woman and Mr. Ziegler after the meeting, she told him she “didn’t agree with what happened,” according to the affidavit. Mr. Ziegler repeatedly said she was his girlfriend and tried to change the subject.

And in phone conversations between the woman and Mr. Ziegler, recorded by the woman and detectives, in which she said he sexually assaulted her, he denied the allegation, telling the woman, “Those are big words, please don’t, no.” I did not do that,” the statement said.

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a Republican running for president, has called on Mr. Ziegler to resign. “I don’t see how he can continue with the ongoing investigation given the seriousness of these situations, and that’s why I think he needs to step aside,” Mr. DeSantis said late last week, adding that he had given the Zieglers good knew and hoped that the accusations were false. “He is innocent until proven guilty, but we simply cannot have a party chairman under that kind of scrutiny.”

In an email to members of the Republican Party of Florida on Saturday, Mr. Ziegler said: “We have a country to save and I am not going to allow false accusations of a crime to put that mission on the bench while I wait for this process is completed. finalize.” He added that he had been targeted by liberal activists and that Ms. Ziegler “is behind me 150 percent.”

Mr. Ziegler was elected chairman this year as top Republicans in Florida debated candidates for the party’s 2024 nomination. He was seen as the choice of former President Donald J. Trump’s allies.

The Zieglers are considered a powerful political couple in Florida, especially in the Sarasota area, which has become a hotbed of conservative activism since the end of the Trump administration. Moms for Liberty worked closely with Mr. DeSantis last year.

Patricia Mazzei And Nicholas Nehamas reporting contributed.