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A viral video appears to show Representative Madison Cawthorn being groped in the groin by a male employee.
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FireMadison.com also posted a screenshot of Venmo payments allegedly made by Cawthorn.
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Payments to the same male employee include labels such as ‘the stuff we did in Amsterdam’.
A much-watched video on Twitter appears to show North Carolina representative Madison Cawthorn being groped by a male employee.
The undated clip shows Cawthorn being filmed in a vehicle by another man.
“I feel the passion and desire and would love to see a naked body under my hands,” Cawthorn says in the video.
The man who is filming responds and says, “Me too. I’d like to see that too,” while pointing the camera at himself. The comment causes Cawthorn to burst out laughing, and the other man films himself putting his hand on the legislator’s groin.
The video was shared late Thursday by the Twitter account of MeidasTouch.com, a super PAC dedicated to “protecting American democracy, defeating Trumpism and holding Republicans accountable”.
Since the video was posted, the video has been viewed over 520,000 times and received over 10,000 likes. It has also been retweeted more than 6,000 times.
According to FireMadison.com, the other man in the video is Cawthorn’s scheduler, Stephen Smith. The site is operated by US Muckrakers PAC, whose self-described sole purpose is to ensure Cawthorn’s “first term in office is his last.”
David Wheeler, the president of American Mucrakers, also uploaded a copy of an ethics complaint he filed against Cawthorn. The complaint alleges that Cawthorn “had failed to properly submit the House’s financial information relating to gifts and loans to Mr. Stephen L. Smith.”
Wheeler’s complaint also alleges that Cawthorn and Smith live together, adding several screenshots showing Cawthorn’s registered address in Hendersonville, North Carolina, and cross-referencing Smith’s registered address on FEC filings.
Wheeler also posted several screenshots of what he believed to be data from Cawthorn and Smith’s Venmo payments to each other. The images shared showed messages between the duo dating from June 17, 2018 to January 9, 2019 — before Smith joined Cawthorn’s campaign for Congress in January 2020 as an aide.
In the screenshots, some of the payments sent from Cawthorn to Smith included labels such as ‘Naked to me in Sweden’, ‘The things we did in Amsterdam’ and ‘The quickie at the airport’.
Meanwhile, some of Smith’s payments to Cawthorn were labeled “To love me daily and evening” and “Naked.”
“The committee is requested to investigate whether there have been any violations of House Rules or Bylaws in the relationship between Representative Cawthorn and his House assistant, Mr. Stephen L. Smith,” Wheeler wrote in his complaint.
A Cawthorn representative called the complaint against Cawthorn “ridiculous.”
“Stephen is his cousin — they’re family,” the Cawthorn rep said. “The PAC that filed the complaint did not investigate.”
Smith may indeed be a distant relative of Cawthorn. In a 2017 statement, Cawthorn calls Smith his third cousin, “once removed,” noting that Smith was working and living with Chick-fil-A as a “hospitality professional” at the time.
The rep also referred Insider to two tweets from Cawthorn, saying it was the congressman’s response to the matter. The first read: “Many of my colleagues would have been nowhere near politics if they had grown up with a cell phone in their hands.”
The second tweet van Cawthorn highlighted by Cawthorn’s spokesperson appeared to be a screenshot from the Epoch Times, highlighting what the publication called an establishment-driven “coordinated drip campaign.”
“We’re looking through it, RINOs,” Cawthorn wrote, as if to imply that the leaked information was a smear campaign against him by Republicans.
Insider was unable to independently verify the Venmo screenshots. Insider also did not immediately receive a response to requests for comment from Wheeler or Smith.
Cawthorn has recently been involved in a series of controversies.
Watchdog groups say the congressman may have violated Congress’s STOCK conflict of interest law by failing to declare his cryptocurrency purchases.
Cawthorn was also recently rebuked by Republican leaders — including lawmakers from his home state of North Carolina and House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy — after he claimed to have witnessed “sexual perversion” and drug use among his congressional colleagues.
A recent Politico article also featured photos of the congressman decked out in lingerie, which Cawthorn dismissed as “crazy vacation photos.”
Cawthorn was also subpoenaed this week for bringing a loaded gun into the Charlotte airport. The incident marked the second time he was found with a gun in his hand luggage.
Read the original article on Business Insider
