Ousted Florida GOP leader Christian Ziegler won’t be charged with sexual battery

CNN —

The former chair of the Florida Republican Party will not be charged with sexually assaulting a woman, but authorities will seek to charge him with video voyeurism, the Sarasota Police Department announced Friday.

In a news release from the department, officials said an investigation into the alleged sexual battery concluded the sexual encounter between Christian Ziegler and the woman was “likely consensual.”

Ziegler has been under investigation since October, after a woman accused him of raping her at her apartment after she canceled a three-way sexual encounter with Ziegler and his wife, Bridget, who is a Sarasota County School Board member and co-founder of the conservative parental rights group Moms for Liberty, according to a search warrant affidavit, which CNN obtained from the Florida Center for Government Accountability.

Ziegler was ousted from his role as Florida GOP chairman earlier this month amid the investigation.

“As a result of the lengthy investigation, Sarasota Police detectives found video evidence that on October 2, 2023, a sexual encounter occurred between the victim and Christian Ziegler,” the news release said. “Ziegler recorded the encounter on his cell phone. The video showed that the encounter was likely consensual. Therefore, detectives were unable to develop probable cause to charge Ziegler with Sexual Battery.”

Police said that in an interview with the woman, she was shown the video and told investigators that she did not consent to the recording. As a result, investigators said they prepared a probable cause affidavit against Ziegler for the felony crime of video voyeurism. In Florida, videotaping a sexual encounter without consent is a third-degree felony.

Police said the