A Florida school board passed a resolution to call for the resignation of board member and Moms of Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler, who is currently under investigation in connection to rape and sexual battery allegations against her husband.
The motion was passed on Monday night by the Sarasota County School Board on a 4-1 vote, with Ms Ziegler in opposition; while the vote is nonbinding, it was a significant show of resistance against her.
Ms Ziegler is married to state Republican Party chairman Christian Ziegler, who is currently under investigation over allegations that he raped a woman in early October.
The recommendation for the high-status powerful conservative activist to stand down is the latest blow that has erupted from the allegations.
Ms Ziegler called the resolution “toothless” but spoke very little before the vote, where members of the public were able to air their thoughts, NBC reported.
The resolution was authored by board Chair Karen Rose, who said she was “shocked and deeply saddened” by the rape allegations against Mr Ziegler and said that Ms Ziegler’s “continued presence on the Board would cause irreparably harmful distractions to our critical mission.”
While Ms Ziegler has not been accused of any wrongdoing, her involvement in her husband’s investigation has seriously damaged the once-powerful couple’s reputation.
An attorney for Florida GOP Party Chair Christian Ziegler said he expected to be fully cleared of sexual battery accusations— (Florida Republican Party/Facebook)
The couple are power players in Florida politics and have both touted their commitment to “family values” while running for public office. Mr Ziegler is a longtime GOP official and former Sarasota County Commissioner who was elected chair of the state party in February.
Ms Ziegler has already resigned from one of her roles as vice president of school board programmes at the Leadership Institute, an organisation that trains conservatives in politics and activism.
The allegations against Mr Ziegler are outlined heavily redacted report provided to The Independent in previous coverage by the Saratosa Police Department.
While the report does not name Mr Ziegler, his attorney Derek Byrd confirmed to The Independent that the Republican official was cooperating with the police investigation and expects to be fully exonerated.
The alleged victim had been in a long-term, consensual sexual relationship with the Ziegler couple, according to the investigative journalism organisation the Florida Center for Government Accountability, which was the first to report on the story.
The organisation cited police sources who said the incident happened when Mr Ziegler came to the woman’s home without his wife on 2 October.
Mr Ziegler allegedly forced his way into her apartment and sexually assaulted her and did not use a condom, according to a search warrant affidavit first obtained by the Florida Center for Government Activity that was then shared with The Independent.
The woman told police she was not in a position to consent as she had been drinking tequila and he raped her when she refused to have sex without his wife present, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit also relays that Mr Ziegler told detectives the sexual encounter was consensual and that he had filmed it but had deleted the footage after the allegations of rape and sexual battery.
In a separate interview, Ms Ziegler told police that she and her husband had a consensual three-way sexual encounter with the accuser about a year before the October incident.
The allegations have garnered a lot of criticism against Ms Ziegler, who is the co-founder of Moms for Liberty, an organisation that advocates against any school curricula or books that mention LGBT+ rights, race issues and theory, ethnicity and discrimination.
“The Zieglers have made a habit out of attacking anything they perceive as going against ‘family values,’ be it reproductive rights or the existence of LGBTQ+ Floridians,” state Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said in a statement.
“The level of hypocrisy in this situation is stunning.”
Mr Ziegler has not yet been charged in connection to any crime and maintains his innocence, telling Florida Republicans in a recent message that he will remain chair and will not let “false allegations of a crime put that mission on the bench as I wait for this process to wrap up.”
The Independent has contacted both Mr and Ms Ziegler for comment.
