Representative Madison Cotorne (RN.C.) has been hit with a new ethical complaint by a political action committee seeking to oust him, which has hit the troubled MP with multiple charges.
The complaint cites recent controversies over the 26-year-old freshman MP who fought in the battle, including twice opening him with a loaded pistol to the airport security and promoting him as a cryptocurrency.
This also raises concerns about alleged gifts to his congressman, who is his distant cousin, but their long-standing personal friendship and other exceptions to the House’s rules governing gifts make the situation murky.
The complaint was filed with the Congressional Ethics Office on Wednesday by the anti-Cawthorn American Muckrakers PAC, known as Fire Madison, and comes less than three weeks before Cawthorn’s May 17 primary, where he faces several contenders.
Cawthorn has released news of recent scandals as part of a “coordinated drip campaign” and criticized some recent attacks for focusing on obscene videos and images rather than politics. A video included in the ethical complaint, first reported by the Daily Mail, shows Cowthorne talking with his planner in a car about hinted topics with an exaggerated accent.
“It’s a pity to dig things from my early 20s to slander me,” Kotorn tweeted on Friday. “At least be consistent with your attack, instead of changing your focus every time. A campaign based on nothing but slander and personal attacks is a campaign that lacks a real sense of how to save the country from the left. ”
David Wheeler, president of PAC v. Cawthorn, said he was trying to spread the information he received about Cawthorn as soon as possible. His group is also behind the recent release of a secret audio recording of a former Cowthorne employee who called Cowthorne a “common liar” and accused him of firing her incorrectly.
“The drip is a fact,” Wheeler told The Hill. “I know you probably won’t believe it because you’re in Washington, but we’re trying to change things quickly, not just sit on them for strategic purposes, just because we think it’s in the public interest, just to get it out and about.” let people figure it out for themselves. “
The ethical complaint points to two cases of Cawthorn carrying loaded firearms through a Transportation Security Checkpoint: once in Asheville, North Carolina in February 2021, and another Tuesday in Charlotte.
It is said that Coutorne brought a knife to the school property four times. Local news reports say the evidence that Kotorn did so is unconvincing in some cases, and in other cases he has given a pocket knife to law enforcement to hold it.
The complaint also cites a report by the Washington Examiner published this week, which said Cawthorn may have violated insider trading laws by promoting the cryptocurrency “Let’s Go Brandon.” Senator Tom Tillis (RN.C.), who backed one of Cawthorn’s opponents, also called for an ethical investigation into Cawthorn based on the report.
Finally, the complaint raises concerns about Cawthorn’s financial and personal relationship with his schedule, accompanied by screenshots of social media posts, Venmo’s transactions from years before Cawthorn took office and records showing that they lived together. It claims that Kotorn gave his planner free rent, paid for travel and lent him money without revealing it. This is a violation of the Chamber’s ethical rules, it is alleged, but there are many ambiguities about the situation.
Kotorn’s scheduler, Stephen Smith, is his distant cousin. Kotorn described Smith as “my grandmother’s sister’s grandson” in a 2017 testimony related to a car insurance lawsuit – the accident that put him in a wheelchair.
Social media posts show that they have been close for years and traveled together abroad before Kotorn even ran for office. In an Instagram post in 2019, Smith described helping Coutorne with physical therapy and said Cowthorne had become more like a brother than a cousin.
Kotorn said in his 2017 testimony that the two were roommates, and the Federal Election Commission’s payment record shows Smith using Kotorn’s address in December 2021. A Kotorne spokesman confirmed that the two were roommates, but said that they are no more. Cawthorn did not report any rental income in the financial disclosure statements, so it is unclear whether Smith paid rent.
The complaint does not provide hard evidence that Cawthorn paid Smith to travel or that Cawthorn gave loans to Smith that were not repaid. Cowthorne’s office said the allegation in the complaint that Smith accompanied Cothorn during his honeymoon was incorrect.
Even if Coutorne provided large gifts to Smith in the form of housing and travel, the breach of house rules is not clear.
Dylan Hedler-Godett, government ethics manager at the Government Oversight Project, told The Hill that any of Kotorn’s gifts to Smith could be within house rules due to exceptions that allow gifts from direct executives. employees, or exceptions that allow gifts based on personal friendship.
“There is some ambiguity that needs to be clarified,” Hedler-Godet said. “That is why you are referring something to the Ethics Committee. They will probably check this out and compare what actually happened to the actual house rules about gifts.
Craig Holman of the Public Citizen Monitoring Group agreed that gifts from Cawthorn to a staff member are unlikely to break the rules, but any non-disclosure of loans could be a problem.
“Cawthorn is really obligated to announce loans,” Holman said. “Other allegations of insider dealing and other allegations are also well-founded.”
Biden mourns American killed in Ukraine Judge rejects Trump’s attempt to halt fines for disrespect to 10 per day
Hiring Kotorn to close friends for his offices in Congress can also raise image problems for him, although it is not prohibited by house rules. Cawthorn Chief of Staff Blake Harp is also a longtime friend.
“If you hire your friends or hire your relatives, it seems like nepotism, patronage, to some extent,” Hedler-Godet said, adding that such moves could “eat up public opinion.” It’s just, you know, friendship.
-Updated at 17:32
Add Comment