November 30, 2023

I’ve long believed that the people most intent on policing other people’s sex lives are reacting to something in themselves they think should be restrained. Nothing confirms that theory more than this story about two conservative icons allegedly behaving in the exact manner they condemn in others.

From the Florida Center for Government Accountability :

Christian Ziegler, Florida’s GOP chairman and husband of Sarasota County School Board member and Moms of Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler, is under criminal investigation after a woman filed a complaint with the Sarasota Police Department alleging the longtime Republican official had raped her, according to a heavily redacted police report obtained by the Florida Trident.

The woman, according to sources close to the investigation, alleged that she and both Zieglers had been involved in a longstanding consensual three-way sexual relationship prior to the incident. The incident under investigation by Sarasota police occurred when Christian Ziegler and the woman were alone at the woman’s house, without Bridget Ziegler present, the sources conveyed.

Sources also corroborated that a search warrant was executed on Christian Ziegler’s cell phone and that investigators continue to conduct a forensic examination of the electronic device. Christian Ziegler is also alleged to have secretly videotaped the sexual encounters between the couple and the woman, sources said.

Sexual abuse is always abhorrent. Normally, I would not care about a consensual threesome or the videotaping of it. But in this case, the whole thing feels pretty disgusting, given how far the Zieglers have risen by working to shove their “family values” down everyone else’s throats. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune calls them “one of the most prominent political couples in the state in recent years.”

Florida Politics has more:

Both have voiced social conservative agendas and were supporters of Florida’s controversial “Don’t Say Gay” law and various limits on transgender rights.

DeSantis appointed Bridget Ziegler to the high-profile Central Florida Tourism Oversight Board, the replacement for the Disney-controlled Reedy Creek Improvement District on the Walt Disney Resort property. She has often appeared alongside the Governor when bills, including when the “Don’t Say Gay” law, were signed.

The FLCGA notes that Bridget Ziegler is currently a vice president at the conservative Leadership Institute where she oversees a training program for moms and dads to win school board seats. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is quoted as having said, “we should have her in every county in Florida.”

C&L readers have long known that Bridget Ziegler is sleazy, regardless of her sexual behavior. She was elected to the Sarasota County school board, partly thanks to local Proud Boys, who she was pictured celebrating with afterwards. She later attempted to downplay the connection.

UPDATE: Posted without comment:

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