Roger Stone has claimed Republican congressman Madison Cawthorn has not retracted allegations that lawmakers in Washington DC used drugs and invited him to orgies.
“Congressman Madison Cawthorn just told me (he) has NOT retracted his claims about drug fuelled orgies among DC elites,” the former Donald Trump adviser said in a post on right-wing social media site Gab.
“Why would anyone believe a statement by Kevin McCarthy or anything reported on CNN? McCarthy is a corrupt RINO and CNN lies about everything.”
A screenshot of the post was shared by attorney Ron Filipkowski.
Mr Stone’s claim came just hours after House minority leader Kevin McCarthy pulled up the North Carolina congressman for alleging in an interview that “sexual perversion” was rampant in Congress.
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Mr McCarthy and minority whip Steve Scalise met with Mr Cawthorn briefly after which the House Minority Leader told reporters that the freshman congressman had “lost” his trust.
“He’s lost my trust is gonna have to earn it back. And I laid out everything that I find is unbecoming,” Mr McCarthy told reporters, according to Axios, before noting that the 26-year-old Republican from North Carolina had changed his story when confronted.
He said Mr Cawthorn told him that “he thinks he saw maybe a staffer in a parking garage maybe 100 yards away” and that the congressman “doesn’t know what cocaine is”.
Earlier in the interview that had gone viral, Mr Cawthorn claimed to have witnessed drug use by lawmakers or political leaders who he insinuated were leading anti-drug addiction campaigns in the country.
“Some of the people leading on the movement to try and remove addiction in our country, and then you watch them do a key bump of cocaine right in front of you. And it’s like, this is wild,” he had said.
He also claimed members he had “looked up to” his entire life had invited him to an “orgy” at a DC residence.
His comments have enraged Republican leadership as well as those in the far-right Freedom Caucus.
Mr McCarthy told reporters he could also face punitive action for his comments.
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Mr Cawthorn is the youngest-serving member of Congress.
He has a history of embracing conspiracy theories and has been accused of making statements with little or no basis in reality.