The House Committee on Ethics said in a statement on Monday that it has opened multiple investigations into outgoing Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC).
The press release from the Committee comes after Cawthorn was defeated in the Republican primary for the seat representing North Carolina’s 11th District by Chuck Edwards, a three-term state senator and business owner.
The investigations into Cawthorn will look into his involvement with a cryptocurrency and whether he had an inappropriate relationship with a staffer.
“The Committee unanimously voted on May 11, 2022, to establish an Investigative Subcommittee,” the Committee said in a statement. “Pursuant to the Committee’s action, the Investigative Subcommittee shall have jurisdiction to determine whether Representative Madison Cawthorn may have: improperly promoted a cryptocurrency in which he may have had an undisclosed financial interest, and engaged in an improper relationship with an individual employed on his congressional staff.”
Cawthorn appeared to respond to the investigations by claiming on Twitter that they were coming from him because he was “a problem for the swamp!”
“Wow- I must still be a problem for the swamp! 👀,” he wrote. “They’re still coming after me!”
Wow- I must still be a problem for the swamp! 👀
They’re still coming after me!
— Madison Cawthorn (@CawthornforNC) May 23, 2022
Cawthorn had become a headache for House Republicans, especially the leadership, with his name constantly appearing in news stories that were unflattering for the party.
Just a few of the negative stories that he’s been involved in have included being detained multiple times at the airport for having a loaded gun on him, accusing his colleagues of having cocaine-fueled orgies without providing evidence, and having an embarrassing video and photographs emerge of him.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) addressed the situation after Cawthorn accused his colleagues of having cocaine-fueled orgies, saying that he no longer trusted Cawthorn.
“I just told him he’s lost my trust, he’s gonna have to earn it back, and I laid out everything I find is unbecoming. And, you can’t just say, ‘You can’t do this again.’ I mean, he’s got a lot of members very upset,” McCarthy said. “In the interview, he claims he watched people do cocaine. Then when he comes in, he tells me, he says he thinks he saw maybe a staffer in a parking garage from 100 yards away.”
“It’s just frustrating. There’s no evidence behind his statements,” McCarthy continued. “And when I sit down with him … I told him you can’t make statements like that, as a member of Congress, that affects everybody else and the country as a whole.”