Madison Cawthorn attempted to manipulate his Congressional chief of staff’s federal compensation to allow him to collect tens of thousands of dollars from the campaign, but screwed up the calculations to such a degree the staffer violated Congressional rules on outside income, The Daily Beast reports.

Blake Harp, a long-time friend of Cawthorn, became the new Congressman’s chief of staff when Cawthorn took office in January 2021, even though he had no legislative experience and little work experience according to his bare LinkedIn profile.  He attended Patrick Henry College, the institution from which Cawthorn dropped out of after less than a year.

Public records of Congressional staffer income show that Cawthorn paid Harp for most of 2021 at a level that would have allowed Harp to collect unlimited income from outside sources.  Congressional rules state that anyone who makes a daily rate of $363.16 or more qualifies as a senior staffer; Cawthorn paid Harp $353.25 for the first three quarters of 2021, which does not make him a senior staffer.

That’s important because senior staffers are limited to making $29,595 annually in outside income, while those who are not senior staffers are not limited by law in the amount of outside earning they can earn.  The problem comes in Q4 2021, when Harp’s income jumped to $374.99 per day; the income levels are determined every quarter, meaning Harp was elevated to senior staff.

But Cawthorn’s campaign paid Harp either directly or through a solely-owned LLC, owned by Harp, $73,237 in 2021.  So Harp earned $205,142 in campaign and federal income in 2021, although he had no discernible skills for his job.

Cawthorn’s office accused The Daily Beast of illegally or unethically obtaining Harp’s income information, although that information is available to the public.  It claims Harp’s income is within Congressional guidelines, although math proves otherwise.  The scheme to line Harp’s pockets for an additional $44,000 than allowed under rules.

As The Daily Beast points out, the scheme was an ineffective Rube Goldberg machine to unnecessarily skirt ethics laws:  had Cawthorn simply paid Harp as a senior staff in line with other Congressional chiefs of staff and had the campaign paid him the maximum amount allowed under law, Harp would have made more than he earned last year and would not face an ethics review.