Madison Cawthorn pleads guilty in case over bringing a loaded handgun through TSA checkpoint

Former North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn pleaded responsible Friday to bringing a loaded handgun by means of a Transportation Safety Administration checkpoint on the Charlotte Douglas Worldwide Airport final 12 months, in accordance with his lawyer.

Cawthorn, whose trial was set to begin Friday, entered a responsible plea for the third-degree misdemeanor cost of possession of a harmful weapon on metropolis property, in accordance with his lawyer Missy Owen.

The previous Republican congressman was fined $250, with out probation, and his firearm will probably be returned, his lawyer mentioned.

“Mr. Cawthorn accepted accountability for this error. Regulation enforcement famous his cooperative angle at each step. He selected to resolve this case in a way that will guarantee his uninterrupted proper to own a firearm. He stays staunchly dedicated to accountable gun possession,” Owen added.

The incident in April 2022 was the second time in simply over a 12 months that airport authorities had stopped Cawthorn with a gun. In February 2021, brokers on the Asheville Regional Airport discovered an unloaded gun and a loaded journal in Cawthorn’s carry-on bag, in accordance with reporting from the Asheville Citizen-Occasions. Cawthorn’s weapon was “secured on the airport and he retrieved it after his flight,” the newspaper reported, citing the airport spokesperson. In July 2021, when the story was printed, a Cawthorn spokesperson informed the Citizen-Occasions that the congressman had introduced the gun “by mistake.” He was not charged within the incident.

Cawthorn was first elected to Congress in 2020 as a robust ally of President Donald Trump. However the firebrand lawmaker angered and aggravated a large swath of his Republican colleagues with a gentle stream of controversial antics and remarks. He claimed on a podcast that he had been invited to an orgy in Washington and had personally seen leaders within the efforts to curb drug dependancy doing cocaine.

Cawthorn in the end got here up brief in his bid for a second time period. Regardless of having Trump’s endorsement, he misplaced within the Republican major to Chuck Edwards, who had the backing of a number of high North Carolina Republicans. Edwards simply went on to win the overall election for the western North Carolina seat.
This story has been up to date with extra particulars.