Outgoing freshman Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) is being sued by his former lawyers for $193,296.85 in allegedly unpaid legal fees and costs.
The Indiana-based Bopp Law Firm filed a lawsuit on December 1, alleging that Cawthorn never paid fees related to their case defending him from a legal challenge that sought to bar him from participating in the 2022 North Carolina Primary.
Cawthorn’s challengers said that Section 3 of the 14th amendment in the U.S. Constitution — which bars anyone “engaged in insurrection” from joining Congress — should block him from running for political office because he participated in the January 6, 2021 “Stop the Steal” rally. There, he and others made unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud which incited the rally’s attendees to launch an attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol to try and stop Congress members from certifying the electoral victory of now-President Joe Biden.
While a U.S. District Judge ruled in favor of Cawthorn in March, a Virginia appeals court overturned the verdict and asked the district court to reconsider the ruling. Cawthorn ended up running in the May 17 Republican primary and was defeated by his opponent Chuck Edwards.
During his brief time in Congress, Cawthorn was a member of the far-right America First Caucus. During his campaign, he lied about his being accepted into the Naval Academy and the Special Olympics. He is an avid devotee of former President Donald Trump.
He has mocked the use of pronouns and said that he considers women to be “earthen vessels” that should be forced to give birth. He has also made numerous comments about society trying to “completely de-masculate” young men. However, the 26-year-old congressman himself once dropped his ultra-masculininty to enjoy partying in women’s lingerie, as photos that surfaced during his 2022 primary campaign showed.
He has also been accused of insider trading related to the “Let’s Go Brandon” crypto coin — currency he has said he owns. He allegedly using insider knowledge that the coin would sponsor NASCAR driver Brandon Brown a day before that was made public.