Michelle Ritter, a 31-year-old tech entrepreneur, has filed a detailed court complaint accusing former Google CEO Eric Schmidt of rape, covert surveillance, and a pattern of physical and emotional abuse during their four-year relationship and joint business ventures, with allegations including forced sexual encounters, hidden camera footage of her nude, and the installation of spyware on her devices.

The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, details multiple incidents of abuse, including a rape allegation in a shower and a sexual assault in August 2023, at Burning Man while she was asleep, alongside claims of digital surveillance and stalking.

“I clearly told him ‘no’ and tried to get him to stop, but I had learned that attempting to resist physically would be futile and make things worse,” her declaration reads.

Ritter alleges Schmidt followed her into a shower, slammed her against the wall, and forcibly raped her, stating she begged him to stop and cried out that he was hurting her, but he ignored her pleas.

“He followed me into a shower, slammed me against the wall, and forcibly raped me,” Ritter alleged. “I begged him to stop and cried out that he was hurting me, but he ignored my pleas. The next morning, Schmidt attempted to convince me that I enjoyed the assault.”

The 31-year-old claims Schmidt secretly photographed her nude on multiple occasions, including entering the bathroom while she showered, and pressured her with sexual fetishes while making degrading comments about her appearance.

“On multiple occasions, Schmidt surreptitiously photographed me without my consent while I was nude, including entering the bathroom to take photographs while I was showering,” she states.

Ritter describes Schmidt as “erratic,” alleging he undressed and exposed himself to his private jet’s flight crew and transported marijuana on the plane.

She also accuses Schmidt of pressuring her to appear “really hot and sexy” at business meetings, urged her to use prescription stimulants for weight loss — only to later mock her for looking “emaciated.”

In front of colleagues, he allegedly made demeaning comments, including: “You should see her naked,” soliciting remarks on how “sexy” she looked, and saying after she misspoke: “At least she’s good looking.”

Ritter asserts that Schmidt installed spyware on her devices in 2021, giving him access to her emails, documents, and texts, and alleges he created a "backdoor" to Google servers to access private information about her and employees.

“On various occasions, Ritter would be using her email account or Google Workspace and saw emails and documents being deleted or altered as if someone else were controlling her keystrokes,” the filing states.

The relationship ended after photos surfaced in early 2024 of Schmidt with a 22-year-old woman, according to court documents. Post-breakup, Ritter alleges the surveillance escalated.

Ritter further alleges that Schmidt broke into her Tesla outside Nobu Malibu on November 7, 2024, stealing her laptop, with restaurant security cameras reportedly capturing the incident.

The 31-year-old claims Schmidt used his technical expertise and wealth to monitor her communications, stating, “I literally cannot have a private phone call or send a private email without surveillance,” and that he locked her out of their shared home and the startup Steel Perlot.

Schmidt’s lawyer and ex-Harvey Weinstein attorney, Patricia Glaser, has rejected the allegations as “false and defamatory,” arguing the dispute stems from Ritter’s mismanagement of their startup and accusing her of attempting to extort him.

“This is the latest desperate and destructive effort to publish false and defamatory statements – which are directly contradicted by her own words – to distract attention and escape accountability from a longstanding business dispute,” Glaser said.

The case, which began with sealed filings in September 2024, is currently tangled in arbitration disputes, with a court hearing scheduled for December 4, 2025.

Schmidt, then 65 and retired from Google with a net worth of $48.3 billion, was married but reportedly in an open relationship with his wife of 45 years, Wendy Schmidt. He was Google’s CEO from 2001 to 2011.

Ritter, who holds a bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University and a law degree and MBA from Columbia University, met Schmidt, a major Democrat donor, in September 2020 through a business contact. At the time, she was 26 and pitching StarX Networks, a company that allowed fans to invest in athletes’ performance.

Together, they launched Steel Perlot, a startup incubator that helped launch companies such as Keeta, a payment network now valued at $161 million.

Ritter claims she helped edit Schmidt’s book with Henry Kissinger, advised on a Biden administration appointment, drafted Senate testimony, and influenced his bid for the Washington Commanders NFL team.

Schmidt has been linked to other younger women, including fashion designer Shoshanna Gruss, former Olympic skater Alexandra Duisberg. socialite Ulla Parker, and former CNBC correspondent Kate Bohner.

American journalist and commentator Candace Owens has publicly revealed that French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron authorized and funded an assassination attempt against her, alleging the plot was carried out by a small team from France's elite National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN) and involved an Israeli operative.

The mother of four revealed that a high-ranking French government employee contacted her two days prior, providing what she deemed credible evidence of the conspiracy, including claims that the plans were formalized and that the assassination was linked to the 2025 killing of Charlie Kirk, whose alleged assassin trained with the French 13th Legion Brigade.

Owens also warned that French journalist Xavier Poussard, who has written about Brigitte Macron, is at risk, and she appealed to her followers to share her post, expressing distrust in U.S. government officials, who she said, are apparently aware of the plot. She made the revelations in a long post on X, labeled “URGENT,” stating she was contacted by a high-ranking French government source who claimed the Macrons had “executed upon and paid for my assassination.” Owens wrote:

Two days ago I was contacted by a high-ranking employee of the French Government. After determining this person’s position and proximity to the French couple, I have deemed the information they gave me to be credible enough to share publicly in the event that something happens. 

In short, this person claims that the Macrons have executed upon and paid for my assassination. Yes, you read that correctly. More specifically, that the green light was given to a small team in National Gendamarie Intervention Group. I am told there is one Israeli that is on this assasination squad and the plans were formalized. 

Again, this person provided concrete proof that they are well placed within the French government apparatus. 

Further to this point, this person claims that Charlie Kirk’s assassin trained with the French legion 13th brigade with multi-state involvement. 

Journalist Xavier Poussard’s life is also at risk. This is deadly serious. The head of state of France apparently wants us both dead and has authorized professional units to carry this out. 

I ask that every person RETWEET and share this. 

I do not know who in the American government can be trusted, since this source claims our leaders are aware. But I have more specific information which is definitively verifiable, should they care to reach out to me. 

To the brave official in France who did this because they were so moved by the evil of Charlie’s public execution to risk their own life— May God bless you. Truly. 

Let all be revealed.

Owens connected the assassination plot to the murder of Kirk, asserting that the killer trained with the French 13th Legion Brigade and that the attack was intended to distract from her investigative podcast series, Becoming Brigitte, which questioned Brigitte Macron’s gender identity.

"I am told that payments for assassinations are running through the Club des Cent in France. Owens added in another post. "This means there is a paper trail and I encourage the patriots of France to do what you can to uncover it. I would again like to stress that there was a French female assassin but also a male, Israeli assassin that were selected to kill me. These are joint state operations."

In another X post Sunday, Owens revealed that she has reported the plot to authorities. "I have informed people in the Federal government and the White House of the France and Israeli assassination plot and am willing to provide full details, as well as the name of the assassins and international accounts in France and Canada through which money was exchanged," she wrote. "Beyond that, I have shared more information with the public regarding the Brigitte story I was investigating at the time of Charlie’s assassination. This is all available on my Instagram stories. Thank you all for reaching out and praying for my family."

No official response has been issued by French, Israeli, or U.S. authorities as of the time of publishing this story.

"The situation is extremely serious," Poussard wrote on X. "The head of the French state apparently wishes the death of Candace Owens and Xavier Poussard and has mandated specialized units to achieve it."

Commenting on the revelations, Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov, who had been harassed by French authorities in the past, said Owens' claims appear plausible.

"After reviewing everything Charlie Kirk has ever said about Macron’s France, I find Candace’s info about French involvement in his death entirely plausible," Durov wrote on X, Sunday. "Charlie even called for 300% tariffs on France until the charges against me were dropped."

"Well-connected people have told me that the French intelligence services are not exactly unknown for assassinations, a point supported by public sources," Durov added in another post.

The allegations come amid an ongoing defamation lawsuit filed by the Macrons against Owens in an American court, which began in July 2025 over her claims that Brigitte Macron was born a man. She has also been facing criticisms from pro-Israel activists and Jewish supremacists for her investigative reporting on the fallout following the assassination of Kirk.