Florida GOP votes to strip chairman Christian Ziegler of authority after he was accused of raping woman in ‘ménage a trois’ with him and his wife – and will reduce his salary to $1

Florida's Republican Party has voted to strip the chairman of his authority and reduce his salary to $1 after he was accused of raping a woman.

An emergency meeting of 40 board members on Sunday set in motion the process of removing Christian Ziegler, who is facing fierce accusations after a woman said he raped her after she planned to have sex with him and his wife Bridget cancelled.

The board will formally consider next month whether to remove Ziegler as chairman.

Sarasota police are investigating the unnamed woman's claim that Ziegler attacked her after she pulled out of sex when she learned Bridget would not be present.

Ziegler, 40, previously said he and his wife are being targeted because they are “such loud political voices” – adding that he will not resign over the allegations.

Police are investigating the allegations and have not charged Ziegler with a crime.

Despite the lack of crime so far, insiders say they want Ziegler out because the allegations have ruined his reputation in Republican circles, making him an ineffective fundraiser ahead of the 2024 election.

A search warrant revealed that Bridget admitted to police that the couple had a sexual encounter with the accuser last year. Ziegler told investigators that he had had sex with the woman, but that it was consensual.

According to police documents, Ziegler claimed he filmed the encounter on October 2 before deleting the video and saving it to a Google Drive.

In a letter to supporters, Ziegler wrote, “We have a country to save and I will not allow false accusations of a crime to put that mission on the bench while I wait for this process to conclude.”

'My family is very strong. My wife is behind me 150 percent and we have developed methods to protect our (three) children, just as we have done in all previous attacks we have faced.”

The longtime Republican activist rose to the state party's top position in February.

Police records showing the Ziegler had group sex with a woman have led Democrats and gay rights leaders to accuse the couple of hypocrisy, as an organization Bridget Ziegler co-founded — Moms for Liberty — has joined DeSantis and the Florida GOP to to push back against LGBTQ+ targets.

Bridget Ziegler is also an elected member of the Sarasota County School Board and was appointed by DeSantis to the board that now oversees Walt Disney World's land development.

The rape allegation against Ziegler became public after the Florida Center for Government Accountability, an investigative news organization, obtained a police report and search warrant affidavits detailing the allegations.

The accuser's name is redacted in the documents.

Pictured: Christian and Bridget Ziegler. Christian Ziegler, 40, is facing fierce accusations after a woman said he raped her after she canceled plans to have sex with him and his wife

The accuser, who has known Ziegler for 20 years, told police that when Bridget backed out of the plan to have sex, she sent Christian a text saying, “Sorry, my main focus was on her,” according to an affidavit .

Later that night, the woman claims that when she left her apartment, she discovered Ziegler outside in the hallway – and claims he then entered her property and raped her.

Weeks later, detectives began monitoring Christian Ziegler's calls and messages to the accuser, the affidavit said.

'Where are you? Do you want to meet and chat? Worried about you. You are my friend,” Ziegler allegedly wrote in a message via Instagram.

“No, not after what you did to me,” the woman replied. “Don't you understand that I'm terrified of you?”

A 911 call obtained by the Florida Center for Government Accountability made by a friend of the alleged victim revealed that she had confided in the friend about her rape.

“She told me she had been raped,” the friend told the dispatcher on October 4.

“She says she's scared, that the person who raped her has come to her house, so she's scared to leave… I'm worried about her now,” the friend explained.

In text and phone conversations tracked by investigators, Ziegler offered the woman “financial assistance” before he suspected they were being recorded.