Conservative lawyer who saved Madison Cawthorn from election challenge sues him for not paying bills – By Samaa Khullar (Salon) / Dec 16, 2022
The freshman congressman owes nearly $200K to a legal firm that kept him on the primary ballot — which he lost
Alaw firm that helped keep Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., on the ballot during a legal challenge to his candidacy in the 2022 North Carolina Primary is now suing him for more than $193,000 in unpaid legal bills.
The Bopp Law Firm, based in Terre Haute, Indiana, filed a federal lawsuit on Dec. 1, accusing Cawthorn of breaching his contract and failing to pay his fees. The $193,296.85 bill does not include interest owed for late payments.
Cawthorn hired the legal team to represent him after opponents tried to keep him off the primary ballot due to his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection. Voters cited Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which was supposed to prevent congressmen who fought in the Confederacy from returning to their position in Congress. They claimed that Cawthorn’s participation in the “Stop the Steal” rally disqualified him from running for Congress again.
A federal judge ruled in Cawthorn’s favor in March, preventing the North Carolina State Board of Election from keeping him off the ballot for the 2022 Primary in May. Voters then appealed the ruling to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, where they reversed the ruling and sent it back to the district court.
