New video of GOP Rep Madison Cawthorn having his crotch felt by a close male friend and staff member is at the center of a complaint calling for an investigation into him and filed with the Office of Congressional Ethics today, DailyMail.com reveals.
The extraordinary footage, obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com shows Cawthorn, 26, in a car with his close aide and his scheduler Stephen Smith, 23.
Cawthorn sits in the driver’s seat apparently filmed by Smith as he adopts an exaggerated accent and says, ‘I feel the passion and desire and would like to see a naked body beneath my hands.’
The camera then pans back to Smith who says, ‘Me too’ as Cawthorn can be heard laughing. Smith then films himself reaching his hand over and into Cawthorn’s crotch.
The video is one of several exhibits filed in support of the ethics complaint drafted by political group Fire Madison Cawthorn.
Cawthorn appeared to allude to the scandal on Thursday in a tweet which said: ‘Many of my colleagues would be nowhere near politics if they had grown up with a cell phone in their hands.’
The complaint calls for an investigation into a slew of behaviors that, the group alleges, has put Cawthorn firmly on the wrong side of a host of House Rules.
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Among the many allegations is the claim that representative for North Carolina’s 11th district provided thousands of dollars in loans and gifts to Smith, a staff member, with whom, the complaint states, he is engaged in an improper relationship characterized by steamy postings on social media and so close that the staffer joined Cawthorn on his honeymoon to Dubai in April 2021.
According to the filing Cawthorn has provided free housing, travel and loans to Smith, none of which have been declared or repaid.
The complaint also requests an investigation into the nature of Cawthorn’s relationship with Smith stating that the junior member of staff lives with Cawthorn.
A campaign payment to Smith submitted in Cawthorn’s FEC filing and attached to the complaint gives Cawthorn’s Hendersonville North Carolina house as Smith’s home address and DailyMail.com has separately verified that Smith is indeed registered as living there.
In addition to this living arrangement the filing claims that, ‘various social media postings by them indicate a personal relationship between them, separate and apart from the professional relationship of employer and employee.’
In fact, according to the ethics complaint, Smith’s relationship with Cawthorn is so close that the younger man joined Cawthorn on his honeymoon to Dubai in April 2021.
Approached for comment Cawthorn’s spokesman Luke Ball said he could not give any response until he had seen the video. He said Smith and Cawthorn are cousins.
A picture included in the exhibits filed in support of the call for an ethics investigation appears to show Cawthorn and Smith, poolside. Cawthorn lounges covered with only a towel, his arm draped over Smith who rests his head on his boss’s shoulder and places his hand on Cawthorn’s hip.
Another picture shows the men enjoying a ‘snow day’ together with Smith sitting next to Cawthorn on an ATV, his arm placed around Cawthorn’s shoulder.
Cawthorn, who is confined to a wheelchair following a 2014 car accident, married Cristina Bayardelle, 27, in April 2021, just weeks after he had been accused of sexual harassment by a number of former students at Patrick Henry College, the northern Virginia college he attended in 2016 for just one semester.
At the time Cawthorn described marrying the 27-year-old anesthesiologist assistant and CrossFit athlete as, ‘the greatest honor, privilege and adventure of my life.
But eight months later, in December 2021, the couple announced they were divorcing with Cawthorn placing the blame for the split on his elevation to political office.
‘When my wife Cristina and I were engaged I was not a member of Congress. I felt called to serve and we both agreed that I should run,’ he said in a press statement released at the time.
Records reviewed by DailyMail.com show that Smith was living at Cawthorn’s Hendersonville, North Carolina, home throughout the representative’s brief marriage.
One payment made by Cawthorn to Smith and dated June 17, 2018, reads, ‘Getting naked for me in Sweden.’
Another made by the representative to his staff member four days later reads, ‘The stuff we did in Amsterdam.’
The following day on June 21 Cawthorn made a payment to Smith for, ‘The quickie at the airport.’
Four days later Smith makes a payment to Cawthorn ‘For loving me daily and nightly.’
One note on a payment made by Smith to Cawthorn on December 13, 2018, reads simply, ‘Nudes.’
It is not clear if the two twenty-somethings added those tags as a joke.
This is an excerpt from Daily Mail.
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