WASHINGTON -- Steve Schmidt, a co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, resigned from the organization's board Friday, throwing the multimillion-dollar super PAC into further disarray over its handling of sexual harassment allegations against another one of its co-founders, John Weaver.
Schmidt, who like Weaver had worked for Sen. John McCain and other Republican moderates, announced his decision on Twitter. He disclosed that he had been sexually abused as a child, saying that he wanted "to make room for the appointment of a female board member as the first step to reform and professionalize the Lincoln Project," currently all-male.
A day earlier, the organization's Twitter account tweeted -- then deleted -- private conversations between journalist Amanda Becker and Jennifer Horn, a Lincoln Project co-founder who left after the accusations against Weaver.
Horn said the messages were published without her permission, and Lincoln Project co-founder and attorney George Conway III called the tweet "a violation of federal law and should be taken down immediately."
The turmoil continued all day Friday, as six former employees published an anonymous letter asking to be released from their nondisclosure agreements after the Lincoln Project released a statement saying it would not comment on the deleted tweet because of its ongoing investigation.
Two donors who had given six figures to the PAC told CNBC on Friday they were reassessing their support.
"The Lincoln Project was probably the most high-profile Never Trumper group," said Joe Walsh, a former Republican member of Congress and one of three 2020 GOP primary challengers to President Donald Trump. "For them to take a hit like this, it will hurt a movement that was out there trying to find its footing."
The allegations against Weaver, a 61-year-old strategist who had worked on both of McCain's campaigns and for the 2016 bid of former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, were first reported by the American Conservative last month.
Weaver was accused of making unsolicited sexual advances to young men and boys, including one as young as 14. In a follow-up article, The New York Times spoke to 21 men who said Weaver harassed them and pressured them for sex in exchange for professional advancement.
As more details surfaced, Weaver apologized in a statement to "men I made uncomfortable through my messages that I viewed as consensual mutual conversations at the time."
Weaver did not respond to a question from The Washington Post.
Most of the Lincoln Project's other co-founders, whose media profile grew throughout the 2020 election campaign, have remained quiet about the scandal. Schmidt told New York magazine that Weaver had misled him when asked about the allegations last year.
"You are a liar and a predator," Schmidt recalled telling Weaver in an email, after more details were reported by the Times. "You have no honor. Thank God McCain is gone."
The Lincoln Project launched in late 2019 with a joint op-ed in The New York Times, with Weaver and Schmidt joined by former GOP operative Rick Wilson and Conway, a contributing columnist for The Washington Post. Together, they promised to win over "enough disaffected conservatives, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents in swing states and districts" to rip Trump's GOP out of power.
Mocked by the former president, the super PAC raised more than $87 million for a series of viral TV ads and videos. Many of its spots spun off the latest presidential drama, with the PAC purchasing time on Fox News for everything from a takeoff on Ronald Reagan's iconic "Morning in America" to a mockery of Trump's jittery walk down a ramp after his commencement address to West Point military graduates.
"Democrats could learn a lot from them," Democratic strategist and TV commentator James Carville said on MSNBC after the spot inspired by "Morning in America" was released. "They're mean, they fight hard, and we don't fight like that."
But the PAC's approach rankled some of its political allies. The tone diverged wildly from the one President Joe Biden's campaign used, portraying the Democrat as a unifier who wanted to get past Trump.
Information for this article was contributed by Andrea Salcedo of The Washington Post.