Tillis calls for inquiry over insider trading concerns surrounding Cawthorn

U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis is calling for an investigation into fellow North Carolina lawmaker U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn over allegations Cawthorn may have engaged in insider trading related to a digital asset named after a joke targeting President Biden.

The allegations surfaced Tuesday in the Washington Examiner, which quoted multiple watchdog groups questioning whether Cawthorn, a first-term U.S. House of Representatives member from the western part of the state, had insider knowledge when he bought the “Let’s Go Brandon” coin, a digital asset that trades for fractions of a penny.

The Examiner article suggested that Cawthorn had advance notice of a marketing deal that caused LGB’s value to surge on Dec. 30. It’s not clear when Cawthorn bought the currency or how much he owned, but he has appeared at various events with a hedge fund manager promoting the coins and has said he owned some, the Examiner reported.

A day before the price increase, Cawthorn was with the manager at a party, the Examiner reported, and posted on Instagram: "LGB legends. ... Tomorrow we go to the moon!"

“Insider trading by a member of Congress is a serious betrayal of their oath, and Congressman Cawthorn owes North Carolinians an explanation,” Tillis said Wednesday in a Tweet from his official account. “There needs to be a thorough and bipartisan inquiry into the matter by the House Ethics Committee.”

A Cawthorn spokesman didn't immediately respond to a message seeking comment. The congressman said in an Instagram post Tuesday that there is "a coordinated attack" by so-called RINOs—short for "Republicans in name only"—against him and others conservative freshmen in Congress.

"Rino senators and establishment pawns want us to go back to the days before Trump," Cawthorn said in the post. "They want to go back to the days of not being on offense, not fighting for the next generation, not trying to dismantle the federal government’s overreach, we will never go back."

The 26-year-old congressman, who has been a lightning rod for controversy in his brief time in office, has drawn seven Republican opponents in the May 17 primary to represent the state's westernmost district.

He was cited Tuesday at Charlotte Douglas International Airport for bringing a gun into the airport, which is at least a second time he’s been found with a gun at a North Carolina airport.

Cawthorn’s behavior over the last two years has drawn rebuke from his fellow Republican elected officials, including Tillis, who is aligned with a political action committee advertising against Cawthorn in the primary.

“Let’s Go Brandon” is a chant adopted by some on the political right after a news reporter misinterpreted a chant at a NASCAR race, hearing an chant against the president—“[Expletive] Joe Biden”—as “Let’s Go Brandon,” a chant for race winner Brandon Brown. This slogan has become an internet meme—part of an online joke as well as a way to signal opposition to Biden.

On Dec. 30, Brown announced the LGB coin would be his primary sponsor for the 2022 NASCAR season, causing a 75 percent increase, the Examiner reported. The coin traded at $0.00000170 at its peak, according to coinbase.com, but its value rapidly collapsed.

Watchdog groups told the Examiner that Cawthorn’s Dec. 29 post suggested nonpublic knowledge of the coin’s deal with Brown.

"This looks really, really bad," Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, government affairs manager for a federal watchdog group called the Project on Government Oversight, told the Examiner. "This does look like a classic case of you got some insider information and acting on that information. And that's illegal.

“I think there is a very strong possibility that if someone is going to investigate this, they're going to find something,” Hedtler-Gaudette said.

The Examiner also quoted Craig Holman, with the group Public Citizen. Holman spoke to WRAL News Wednesday.

"Cawthorn knew there was going to be this big surprise," Holman told WRAL. "And with that surprise the value of the cryptocurrency shot up 75%. Now, if Cawthorn knew that was going to happen before it became public information and he bought that currency himself, prior to Dec. 30th, that would appear to be insider trading right there."