As revealed by the bipartisan House Committee for Ethics on Monday, U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who just lost his North Carolina primary and will therefore be losing his seat in congress, faces even more bad news as a possible “improper relationship” with a staffer and his possible improper promotion of a cryptocurrency are both going to be investigated by a specially-formed subcommittee.

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The Committee voted “to establish an Investigative Subcommittee” according to a press release, that “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.”

CNBC says that “the president of a political action committee filed an ethics complaint against him for allegedly failing to file financial disclosures of gifts and loans made to his scheduler, Stephen Smith.”

Madison Cawthorn via Flickr / Gage Skidmore https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

David Wheeler, president of the American Muckrakers PAC added:

“Mr. Smith apparently lives with Rep. Cawthorn and various social media postings by them indicate a personal relationship between them, separate and apart from the professional relationship of employer and employee. ”

Smith is also Cawthorn’s cousin. A spokesperson for Cawthorn called the ethics complaint “ridiculous.”

Madison Cawthorn via Flickr / Gage Skidmore https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

The complaint also alleges that Cawthorn was involved in a cryptocurrency “pump-and-dump” scheme, with the one term congressman saying that the cryptocurrency “Let’s Go Brandon Coin” would “go to the moon,” meaning its price would skyrocket.  Cawthorn was caught on photograph with the hedge funder behind the coin, one day before an announcement did cause its value to jump significantly.

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Christopher Powell