More NC lawmakers identified as attending bourbon trip, search warrant says
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- Rep. Ray Pickett and Sen. Todd Johnson were named as 2022 tour attendees.
- Only Sen. Tim Moffitt reported the trip on his economic interest statement.
- Four lobbyists face misdemeanor charges for violating the gift ban.
A newly public search warrant identifies two more lawmakers who attended at least one of two bourbon tours in Kentucky, and one of them is the current co-chairman of the House Alcoholic Beverage Control Committee.
The warrant is the second made public in a probe by the State Bureau of Investigation into a nonprofit known as Greater Carolina, which hosted the trips.
The warrant says only one lawmaker who attended — state Sen. Tim Moffitt of Henderson County — reported the trip on his statement of economic interest, a report many state officials have to file with the State Ethics Commission each year.
Four lobbyists face a misdemeanor charge of violating the state’s ban on gifts to lawmakers. The indictments say they used their clients to help pay for the 2024 bourbon tour. Evidence in the case reported in search warrants shows lobbyists’ clients also helped pay for the 2022 trip, but the statute of limitations prevents charges from being considered, Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman has said.
The second search warrant was unsealed late last month. It said Rep. Ray Pickett of Watauga County and state Sen. Todd Johnson of Union County attended the 2022 trip along with then-Rep. Jason Saine and Moffitt. All are Republicans.
Both search warrants say 11 lawmakers attended the first bourbon tour with lobbyists and their clients, while nine lawmakers attended the second. It’s unclear how many of the first group of lawmakers also attended the second tour since Moffitt was the only one to disclose the trip.
A complaint that prompted the investigation, filed by Carolina Forward, a left-leaning nonprofit think tank, produced receipts from the 2024 tour that showed purchases by Reps. Kyle Hall of Stokes County and David Willis of Union County. Hall and Willis, both Republicans, did not respond last year to inquiries about whether they attended the 2024 tour.
State Sen. David Craven, a Randolph County Republican, early this year acknowledged attending the 2024 tour after The News & Observer inquired about him reporting on his 2021 economic interest statement that he was Greater Carolina’s secretary.
The search warrants and other documents indicate that Saine attended both trips. A former legislative aide of his, Clark Riemer, who is now a lobbyist, filed the incorporation papers for Greater Carolina in 2018. The nonprofit bills itself as a free-market conservative group.
Its director, David Coble, is a Mooresville businessman who occasionally cohosted a radio show with Saine, a Lincolnton Republican.
The search warrants say Saine was involved in launching the bourbon tours. During that time, he was the chief budget writer under then House Speaker Tim Moore, who left the position in 2024 to successfully run for Congress. Saine also left the House that year and became a lobbyist. By then the 2024 trip had become public, the result of a Reddit post by a distillery employee who claimed the tour group had behaved badly.
Liquor companies pay expenses
The search warrants show the lobbyists’ clients sought to talk with lawmakers about alcoholic beverage issues. Liquor companies Diageo and Sazerac paid thousands of dollars in expenses. Diageo also made a $10,000 “in-kind” contribution to Greater Carolina in 2024. Since it is organized as a 501(c)4 “social welfare group” under federal law, it does not have to disclose its donors.
The newly released search warrant also said Diageo paid for a dinner on the 2024 tour at Morton’s Steakhouse in Louisville, Kentucky, that the company had expected would be picked up by Greater Carolina. A Diageo government affairs employee planned the “Greater Carolina hosted dinner” with Sarah Newby, who the nonprofit contracted with to raise money and hold events. She is also a state GOP official and the daughter of state Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby.
“At the end of the evening, the Greater Carolina staff were unavailable, leaving the final invoice for Diageo to pay. Diageo paid the invoice with the expectation that Greater Carolina would reimburse them, but no such reimbursement was received as of March 14, 2025. Diageo ultimately considered the cost to have been an ‘in-kind’ contribution’ to Greater Carolina,” the search warrant said.
Greater Carolina has never hired a lobbyist, which would have prevented it from offering the bourbon tours to lawmakers. But the SBI says in the search warrants that Greater Carolina served as a cover for lobbyists and their clients to pay for the trips to “evade lobbying disclosure and reporting requirements.”
In a brief interview Wednesday, Pickett said his attorney had told him not to discuss the trip. Johnson, who is seeking to be the next Senate leader when state Sen. Phil Berger finishes his term, could not be reached.
Liquor warehouse under discussion
Among the topics brought up at the 2022 bourbon tour, according to the search warrants, was the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission’s need for a new liquor warehouse. North Carolina heavily regulates the sale and distribution of liquor.
Last month, The N&O reported that ABC Commission Chairman Hank Bauer said through a spokesman that House Majority Leader Brenden Jones wrongly claimed on the House floor on June 18, 2025, that Bauer supported a public-private option to build the warehouse. Bauer said David Powers, a lobbyist for a subsidiary of Florida developer M Group, then set up an Aug. 6 meeting between Bauer and Jones in which Jones told him the House would only support that option.
Jones, a Columbus County Republican, has not responded to The N&O’s requests for an interview or for any records related to the warehouse plans. His campaign is among the beneficiaries of more than $500,000 in campaign contributions aiding Republican legislative candidates from people with M Group ties over the past four years.
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A team from M Group that included CEO Patrick Marino and two other lobbyists met with Bauer on Aug. 20 to discuss the proposed warehouse. A day later, Marino attended a fundraiser for Jones that was hosted by Michael Estramonte, a healthcare executive in Charlotte, a post on Jones’ Facebook page shows.
Also at the fundraiser was Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino, who Jones described as a friend who traveled from Florida to attend. Marino led the Miami Dolphins to the Super Bowl in 1985.
The two Marinos do not appear to be related, but Patrick Marino, in his M Group biography, says that he is a supporter of the Dan Marino Foundation and his alma mater the University of Pittsburgh. Patrick Marino and others with company ties have given Jones’ campaign $59,200, nearly half of that at the time of the fundraiser.
Patrick Marino and Estramonte have not responded to phone messages seeking comment.
One of the M Group lobbyists at the meeting with Bauer was Kevin Wilkinson, who is one of the four indicted in the Greater Carolina case. Wilkinson also lobbied for Sazerac at the time of the bourbon tours.
In both meetings, Bauer said he does not support the public-private option. He has produced spreadsheets that show lease payments under such a plan over a 20-year-period would put the cost at more than $500 million, with the state not owning the building.
Bauer supports a $310 million loan from a financial institution for the new building. That option is in a Senate alcoholic beverage regulation bill. Pickett told his colleagues to oppose it, and he now leads a contingent of four lawmakers Speaker Destin Hall appointed to come up with compromise legislation. Moffitt, who supports the loan plan, leads the Senate conferees.
Pickett in the interview on Wednesday said he declined to talk about the legislation because it’s in conference.
As for Jones’ involvement in the warehouse debate, Pickett said: “I don’t know what happened. I was not a part of that conversation.”
Greater Carolina is under continued investigation regarding matters beyond the bourbon tours, Freeman has said. Last month she declined to say whether the warehouse plans could become part of the investigation.
This story was originally published July 6, 2026 at 12:10 PM with the headline "More NC lawmakers identified as attending bourbon trip, search warrant says."