Last time we checked in on disgraced Florida GOP power throuple Christian and Bridget Ziegler, he was still refusing to resign as chairman of the FL GOP, and she was resisting calls to resign her seat on the Sarasota County School Board. Last weekend, the FL GOP executive board voted to strip Christian of his power and reduce his $120,000 salary to $1. But he remains chairman, and she’s still on the school board and a paid DeSantis crony-member of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board.
There’s a new development. The Sarasota cops who are investigating a rape accusation against Christian Ziegler unearthed a second sex tape. The new video purportedly shows Bridget Ziegler “engaged in sexual relations with a woman,” according to the Trident, the journalism program of the Florida Center for Government Accountability, which was the source of the original story about the rape accusation.
According to an affidavit filed by Sarasota police Det. Angela Cox, Christian Ziegler admitted to police he recorded the incident that led to the rape allegation, a video police also recovered in the investigation. Bridget Ziegler told investigators she and her husband had a joint sexual encounter with the same woman more than a year ago, according to the affidavit.
A second video has been recovered by police showing Bridget Ziegler, a cofounder of the conservative Moms for Liberty, engaging in sexual relations with a woman, sources said. It is not known if the woman in the video is the same woman who has alleged she was sexually assaulted by Christian Ziegler. Neither Christian nor Bridget Ziegler have responded to requests for comment from the Trident.
Remember, Bridget Ziegler bragged onstage to her fellow AstroTurf “mama bears” and Ron DeSantis about her role in writing Florida’s notorious “Don’t Say Gay” law — during approximately the same timeframe she was shagging another woman while her husband filmed it. The latter would be none of our business if not for the former, but here we are. Her victims haven’t forgotten her role in their ongoing persecution:
Numerous citizens spoke at last week’s packed school board meeting against Bridget Ziegler, many of them claiming the revelations of the police investigation exposed hypocrisy in her anti-LGBTQ efforts.
“Bridget and Christian Ziegler have stepped on the backs of marginalized communities across Florida,” said Nicholas Mechuka, of Equality Florida, at the meeting. “They have demonized people, Bridget Ziegler is an architect of Moms for Liberty. It is not a grassroots movement. It is a cynical sick tool hatched by the Zieglers to sell fear and division for political gain.”
“You have emotionally and psychologically damaged countless students, parents, and teachers with your hateful rhetoric,” resident Steve Russell told Bridget Ziegler. “Resign.”
They won’t resign, but the story isn’t going anywhere thanks to outfits like the Trident making public records requests for the videos (denied due the ongoing investigation…for now) and interviewing sources in the police department. Meanwhile, elections — and with them, accountability — are coming in 2024. Will Floridians take out the trash? We’ll see.
Open thread.