Congressman Madison Cawthorn Is at It Again — Top Scandals

North Carolina Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn is at it again. The first-term 26-year-old congressman is embroiled in another controversy that's drawing criticism from both sides of the political fence. Cawthorn has been involved in more scandals than you can count on one hand throughout his term.

This week, questions of possible insider trading and violation of federal conflict of interest laws arose from Cawthorn’s promotion of the Let’s Go Brandon crypto coin. The conservative publication Washington Examiner alleged Cawthorn may have violated federal insider trading laws when he promoted the coin by admitting owns it.

Cawthorn may also have violated federal conflict of interest laws by not disclosing his crypto ownership, reports Insider. Members of Congress are required by law to report if they purchase cryptocurrency worth more than $1,000.

A class-action lawsuit is pending that claims the LGB crypto was an illegal pump-and-dump scheme, where early investors “pump up” the coin to increase the price, then dump their holdings.

On the same day the allegations of insider trading against Cawthorn broke, news of his second arrest for trying to bring a loaded gun on an airplane was also reported.

Cawthorn’s antics have caused even his fellow Republicans to turn on one of their own. Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy admonished Cawthorn for alleging in an interview that lawmakers do cocaine and participate in orgies.

Cawthorn has been at the center of several scandals since before he was elected to Congress in 2020. The college dropout even lied about the car accident that left him in a wheelchair. In a 2017 speech at Patrick Henry College, where Cawthorn attended just a semester before dropping out, he said his friend who was in the car with him left him to “die in a fiery tomb.” The friend, Bradley Ledford, later told The Washington Post that he actually pulled the unconscious Cawthorn out of the car.

Cawthorn also spun falsehoods about his academic career. He later admitted that his claims of being accepted to Princeton and Harvard’s online program were false. He also implied that he couldn't join the Naval Academy because of his accident, but it was later revealed that the Naval Academy rejected him before the accident, reports Mother Jones.

For the short time that Cawthorn was at Patrick Henry College, he gained a reputation for “predatory behavior,” a group of former students said in a statement opposing his candidacy for Congress.

“It became a regular warning in the female dorms not to be caught alone with Madison Cawthorn,” the statement reads.

Cawthorn has outraged so many North Carolina residents that the citizens formed a Super PAC (Political Action Committee) to have him removed from office. On April 27, the Fire Madison Cawthorn Super PAC requested Congress investigate Cawthorn for several ethical violations.

Part of the alleged ethics violations involves Cawthorn’s close aide and staffer, Stephen Smith. The Super PAC asked the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate the relationship between Cawthorn and Smith. It alleges that Smith lives with Cawthorn and that Cawthorn has lent Smith money and provided him with free housing and travel.

“...various social media postings by them indicate a personal relationship between them, separate and apart from the professional relationship of employer and employee,” states David Wheeler, the president of Fire Madison Cawthorn, in a letter to the Ethics committee.

The complaint included a video of Smith grabbing Cawthorn’s crotch while the two are in a car together and a Venmo payment history between the two men with suggestive messages in notes attached to the payments, the Daily Mail reports.