Cawthorn noted that the photos were taken during a "goofy game on a cruise ship with my friends" and that his mother was in the crowd.
Cawthorn previously alleged that older members of Congress had invited him to orgies and offered him cocaine shortly after he arrived in Washington.
He was previously stopped by the TSA at Asheville Regional Airport, when an unloaded gun and were found in in Cawthorn's carry-on bag.
He claims, however, that it was a just case of platonic male friends engaging in a bit of friendly roughhousing.