Christian Ziegler, the embattled chairperson of the Republican Party of Florida who has been accused of rape, was stripped of his authority and had his salary reduced to $1 by members of the party’s executive board Sunday.

The board also formally censured him in a resolution that called for his resignation, according to Adam Ross, the chairperson of the Pinellas County GOP who was in the room observing the proceedings. The group also set another special meeting for Jan. 8 in Tallahassee, where a larger group of party members is slated to vote on completely removing Ziegler as chairperson and electing his replacement.

“It was crystal clear today that the executive board believes that Christian no longer can do the job as chair because he can’t fundraise, doesn’t represent the values of the Republican Party, and he won’t be able to help our candidates running for election,” Ross said. “They definitely made the right decision.”

During the roughly 90-minute meeting behind closed doors at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, the 40-person group of party leadership plus one representative from each of Florida’s congressional districts decided Ziegler’s future. Many in the party hoped the move would be the beginning of the end of a scandal that they feared, left unaddressed, could detract from the organization’s readiness for 2024.

“It’s a big distraction from what we need to do as a party,” said Pam McAloon, a member of the executive board from Pinellas-based Congressional District 13, in an interview days before the meeting. “He needs to take care of his family affairs and I don’t know how he can do that when he himself could very well be distracted in the process.”

Through an attorney, Ziegler has said he will be exonerated. A woman made the rape allegation to Sarasota police in October, and since then, police have opened a criminal investigation. No charges have been filed.

The alleged victim was a woman who told police that she previously had a consensual three-way sexual encounter with Ziegler and his wife, Bridget — which prompted widespread criticism that the Zieglers’ vocal opposition to things like LGBTQ+ school lessons were hypocritical. According to a search warrant affidavit, Bridget Ziegler, who is a co-founder of the high-profile Moms for Liberty education group and a member of the Sarasota County School Board, confirmed to detectives that this threesome previously occurred.

The woman, whose name is redacted in police records, told police she’d agreed to have sex with both Zieglers again that day in October but canceled when she learned Bridget Ziegler could not attend, according to the affidavit.

After the investigation into Christian Ziegler was publicly revealed through news stories on Nov. 30, some of the state’s most powerful Republicans — including Gov. Ron DeSantis, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, Florida House Speaker Paul Renner and Senate President Kathleen Passidomo — called on him to resign.

Still, Ziegler indicated earlier this month in an email to party members that he had no plans to step aside.

By Sunday, though, much of the decisions about his future were no longer up to him.

This is a breaking story that will be updated.