Legal troubles continue for NC’s Madison Cawthorn as his own lawyers sue him
Rep. Madison Cawthorn can’t stay out of legal trouble, but this time it’s his own lawyers suing him.
Earlier this year, Cawthorn faced a legal challenge against his reelection to represent North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives over allegations that he supported or possibly even helped plan the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol intended to stop the certification of President Joe Biden.
Cawthorn hired The Bopp Law Firm in Indiana to represent him. Now, the law firm is accusing Cawthorn of breach of contract for failing to pay $193,297. That total does not include the 1.5% interest rate being added monthly since January or fees due for the expense of trying to collect overdue payments.
Cawthorn’s spokesman Micah Bock could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday morning. The lawsuit was first posted on the Courthouse News Service website.
The Bopp Law Firm represented Cawthorn throughout the course of the lawsuit. It became moot after he lost the primary to fellow Republican state Sen. Chuck Edwards, who will succeed Cawthorn on Jan. 3.
“Along with the litigation in federal court, attorneys at BLF successfully opposed — twice — the intervention by the challengers, protected his interests in state redistricting proceedings by opposing the appointment of a special master that was counsel for intervenors, and advised the campaign in successfully navigating the change in districts,” attorney James Bopp Jr. wrote in the lawsuit.
Cawthorn had experienced a series of misfortunes in the months leading up to his election loss that included telling a podcast host his colleagues on Capitol Hill participated in orgies and snorted cocaine, calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a thug, having photos and videos leaked showing him goofing off in sexually suggestive ways, bringing guns to airports and knives to school property and being accused of insider trading involving cryptocurrency.
Bopp is a conservative lawyer known for his work with election and campaign finance laws and anti-abortion legislation. He has served as deputy attorney general of Indiana and vice chairman of the Republican National Committee.
His clients include True the Vote, Focus on The Family, National Right to Life and Concerned Women for America.
Bopp represented both Cawthorn and Marjorie Taylor Greene in challenges to their candidacies. The challenges were based on a section of the 14th Amendment that had banned members of Congress from returning if they fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War.
The Bopp Law Firm began sending invoices in January to Cawthorn, who continued to accrue new charges through September. The firm said Cawthorn never objected to the amount owed and contended that under Indiana state law, where the attorneys are based, any objection he would make now once the lawsuit is filed — that happened on Dec. 1 — would be moot under state law.
Cawthorn is wrapping up his final days in Congress.
Last week the House Ethics Committee announced it had found evidence that Cawthorn violated ethics rules by promoting the cryptocurrency meme coin, “Let’s Go Brandon,” while having a financial interest in it, and that he had bought it at a reduced rate. He was sanctioned and fined more than $15,000.
He recently purchased a $1.16 million house in Florida, and his spokesman refused to tell McClatchy what state the lawmaker currently resides in.
Cawthorn recently appeared on the Tomi Lahren is Fearless show and announced he plans to focus on starting a family — he’s currently going through a divorce — and will eventually return to politics again.
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This story was originally published December 15, 2022 at 10:47 AM with the headline "Legal troubles continue for NC’s Madison Cawthorn as his own lawyers sue him."