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Eric Bowman

Eric Bowman is a Charleston-area businessman whom Rep. Nancy Mace publicly named in a February 2025 House floor speech and later sued for defamation in May 2025; Bowman has denied the underlying allegations and disputed the suit.

Photograph of Eric Bowman
Credit: dailymail.com. Source

Eric Bowman is a Charleston, South Carolina businessman and entrepreneur. He previously served as CEO of Berkeley County software company SPARC for approximately seven years, founded the online video platform Stream Live, and briefly owned the Charleston Battery soccer team before selling it in 2019, according to ABC News 4.

What happened

February 10, 2025, House floor speech. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC-1) delivered a lengthy speech from the House floor in which she publicly named Bowman alongside three other men, alleging a pattern of sexual abuse targeting multiple women, including herself, and claiming that thousands of images of women had been recorded without their knowledge. The allegations were made under Congressional speech-and-debate privilege. Bowman publicly denied the allegations.

April 8, 2025, Stalking and harassment arrest. Sullivan's Island Police Department arrested Bowman on charges of first-degree harassment and stalking. He was booked at Al Cannon Detention Center. According to ABC News 4, the charges arose from a complaint by his estranged wife. Bowman denied the charges on social media, stating he and his estranged wife had had no contact since November 2023 and that the charges were unfounded. He has not been convicted; the criminal case status has not been adjudicated as of the date of this entry. Following the arrest, Mace publicly called Bowman a "predator" and stated: "If you harm women and kids you should face the full force of the law."

May 12, 2025, Defamation lawsuit filed. Mace filed a civil defamation complaint against Bowman in Charleston County Court of Common Pleas (Case No. 2025-CP-10-02733), seeking at least $7,500 in damages plus punitive damages. The suit alleged that after Mace's February floor speech, Bowman "intentionally and repeatedly, maliciously and falsely" posted on social media platform X that Mace had illegally influenced the award of Department of Veterans Affairs contracts to friends and political allies, including a Mount Pleasant software company called Bracari. The complaint characterized the posts as "vile, contemptible, and repugnant character attacks" designed to damage her credibility as an elected official, according to the Post and Courier and ABC News 4.

Bowman's response to the defamation suit. Bowman called the lawsuit "headline theater" and denied the defamatory-intent allegation. In a public statement quoted by ABC News 4, he said: "My posts, based on documents, public records, witness testimony, and materials from her own staff, present evidence of extortion, hacking, blackmail, misuse of private images, misappropriated tax dollars, and retaliation against rival VA contractors." He added: "I acted in good faith and without malice, and I will present this evidence under oath. I'm confident the First Amendment, and the documented facts, will prevail." These are allegations Mace denies, and the merits of these counter-claims have not been adjudicated.

November 2025, Gag order. Judge Donald B. Hocker of the South Carolina Court of Common Pleas imposed a gag order on Mace, Bowman, and other parties involved in the related cluster of civil lawsuits, prohibiting them from "publishing, posting, sharing or creating any public content surrounding the lawsuits," according to WPDE. The order was signed on November 26, 2025, with a three-week initial duration, renewable December 17. The judge stated the measure was intended to help ensure "every party to this case receives a fair, just, and reasonable resolution."

June to July 2026, stay, then Mace goes pro se. On June 2, 2026, at the parties' joint request, the court stayed the defamation case for 120 days, citing the parties' adversity "in multiple forums on different facts." On June 30, 2026, Mace filed a Notice that she is proceeding pro se, and on July 6, 2026 she filed, in her own hand, a Motion to Lift Stay so that Bowman's fully-briefed motion to dismiss can be decided. On the coversheet she lists Bowman's attorney as Robert Merting of the Kim and Lahey Law Firm. The full eight-page filing is reproduced in the dispatch; the case and docket are catalogued on the Mace v. Bowman hub.

All civil litigation described above was pending as of the date of this entry. No final judgment has been entered. The criminal stalking and harassment charges have not been adjudicated.

Affidavit in the Musgrave v. Mace record

In addition to his role as a defendant in Mace's defamation suit, Bowman executed his own sworn affidavit on May 28, 2025, which was submitted as Exhibit C in Brian Musgrave's opposition briefing contesting the Westfall Act certification in Musgrave v. Mace (D.S.C., No. 2:25-cv-01823-RMG).

In that affidavit, Bowman swears to a series of private contacts he says he had with Mace via the Signal messaging application. He states that on or about September 7, 2023, during the period of the dissolution of Mace's relationship with Bryant, Mace messaged him and placed a voice call through Signal, during which she "asked if I knew someone who could hack into a phone." He responded that he did, but that "it would be very expensive." He further swears that on the same day she told him she had "taken care of it." Bowman also states that on or about October 31, 2023, Mace changed the disappearing-message timer in their Signal conversation to one day, which he attests "reflected an intent to prevent a record of further communications from being retained."

According to Bowman's affidavit, on November 24, 2023, he received a Signal call from Mace during which she "was begging me to tell her what incriminating data or evidence on any business deals gone wrong that I had on Patrick and if I would be willing to testify against him." Bowman states he told her he had data but did not want to get involved publicly. He swears that she "begged me to provide such data and said she was building a case against him to ruin him."

These are Bowman's own sworn allegations. Rep. Mace has denied wrongdoing; the scope-of-employment question at issue in Musgrave v. Mace is contested and unadjudicated. No court has made any finding of fact based on the affidavit.

Sources

See also