Newly released video footage from a state trooper’s dashboard camera shows an officer taking North Carolina Representative Madison Cawthorn’s driver’s license after pulling over the congressman.
A superior court judge in the state found that release of the footage was in the public interest, according to public records. The Charlotte Observer published the footage.
The video shows a trooper with Mr Cawthorn on 3 March after the congressman was pulled over for allegedly driving with his license revoked in Cleveland County around 10.30 pm. The video shows the trooper telling the first-term Republican that he was driving with expired tags.
In the video footage, once the trooper tells Mr Cawthorn that his license is revoked, a woman on the passenger side puts on high heels and gets Mr Cawthorn’s wheelchair out of the pickup truck’s bed. Afterward, he gets in the chair, goes to the passenger’s side and they drive away.
Public records indicate this is the second time that Mr Cawthorn’s was accused of driving with a revoked license. The first time was in 2017 but the case was dismissed. He also faces two additional charges of speeding, one from October of last year and another from January of this year.
He has also been stopped by airport security for trying to bring a gun through a checkpoint.
The congressman most recently came under fire when he told a podcast that members of Congress invited him to an orgy and did cocaine. That earned a reprimand from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Along with those remarks, Mr McCarthy reportedly cited Mr Cawthorn’s driving with a suspended license.
Initially, Cleveland County District Attorney Mike Miller opposed the video’s release because the publicity would complicate the case.
