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On Saturday, the director of the State Bureau of Investigation attended a political fundraiser at a Southport restaurant for a state lawmaker. The next day, an SBI social media post praised state lawmakers for their support.
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“SBI Director Chip Hawley was honored to attend an event celebrating and supporting Representative Charlie Miller,” the post said. “He thanked Miller for his support of law enforcement and North Carolina’s public safety.”
That post on Facebook, X and Instagram included a photo of Hawley with Miller and three other elected officials – North Carolina State Auditor Dave Boliek, House Majority Leader Brenden Jones and state Rep. John Bell, who is the powerful House Rules Committee chairman. All of the elected officials are Republicans, while Hawley is unaffiliated.
This happened as the bureau is conducting an expanding criminal investigation into a politically connected nonprofit, Greater Carolina of Mooresville, that took lawmakers on two bourbon trips in Kentucky that were paid for in part by liquor businesses. Last week, Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said the investigation has expanded to look at the nonprofit’s ties with the M Group Companies, a Florida developer seeking to build a massive warehouse for the N.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission.
Two experts on government ethics said Hawley’s appearance at the fundraiser and the SBI’s publicizing it could create the impression of favoritism toward officials the SBI may have to investigate.
Frank Perry, a former head of the FBI’s Raleigh/Durham office, focused on the allegations that have surfaced in the investigation. They have proven to have enough weight for a Wake County grand jury to bring a misdemeanor charge against four lobbyists for violating the state’s gift ban on lawmakers, and that should have caused Hawley to steer clear, he said. Perry, who was also a public safety department secretary under then-Gov. Pat McCrory, now teaches at NC State University’s School of Public and International affairs.
“If the allegations that came in and have come into the SBI meet a three-point threshold, are they specific, credible, and coherent? That’s the investigative standard,” he said. “If they are specific, credible, and coherent – just allegations – then whoever is in charge of those investigations should stay away from events and any appearance of impropriety that would usher in favoritism or mitigation of a righteous investigation.”
One of the officials in the photo, Jones, a Columbus County Republican, is directly involved in the M Group’s efforts to build the liquor warehouse. Last year, he won approval of an amendment that would create a path for the developer via a public-private partnership. He told his colleagues on the House floor that ABC Commission Chairman Hank Bauer asked for the amendment creating that option.
In June, Bauer told The News & Observer through a spokesperson that he had not asked for the amendment. Several weeks after its passage, Jones told Bauer in a private meeting that was the only way the House would support the warehouse, Bauer said. Two weeks later, M Group officials met with Bauer seeking the construction project. In both meetings, Bauer said he opposed the option.
Davina Hurt, government ethics director at Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, said she didn’t know enough to speak on the SBI investigation, but Hawley’s appearance and the social media post were troubling.
“It is my opinion that the most significant ethical concern is not attendance alone, but the combination of attending a political fundraiser and using the agency’s official communications platform, publicly thanking a legislator who funds the agency and doing so during an election cycle,” Hurt said in an email response. “Individually, each fact might be explainable, but together they present ethical red flags.”
Carolina Forward, a Carrboro-based, left-leaning nonprofit think tank, first raised objections to Hawley’s appearance and the SBI post. But Carolina Forward’s post included misinformation about the investigation.
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The SBI then attacked Carolina Forward over its error, causing the nonprofit to delete the post and follow up with another acknowledging the error.
But SBI officials declined to comment on the ethical questions surrounding Hawley’s appearance and its promotion on the SBI’s social media accounts. SBI spokesman Chad Flowers declined to respond to a reporter’s question asking whether the event was a fundraiser for Miller, who is chairman of the House appropriations committee that helps set funding for the SBI and other justice and public safety agencies.
Miller, a former chief deputy in Brunswick County, later confirmed the event was a fundraiser with roughly 150 people attending. He said inviting Hawley was an opportunity to thank him for the SBI’s work when a Southport bar on the waterfront was fired upon by a gunman in a boat last September, police said, killing three and injuring several others.
Hawley, who became SBI director in 2024, spoke briefly at the fundraiser, Miller and Bell said.
“He didn’t say anything about politics,” said Miller, who was first elected to the House in 2020. “He just said, ‘Hey, you know, Charlie Miller is my friend. Has been friends for years, and you know, please support him.’”
Miller did not see a problem with Hawley’s appearance. He and Bell said they did not go on the bourbon tours.
“I was not on the damn bourbon trip,” Miller said flatly.
Jones has turned down several requests for an interview, but said in an email response through a staffer that he did not go on the tours either. SBI search warrants say 11 lawmakers went on the first tour in 2022; nine on the second. Greater Carolina has yet to disclose who went. State Sen. Tim Moffitt is the only member who reported going on a tour – the first – in his economic interest statement, the SBI has said.
Five others have been identified through other public records or through receipts Carolina Forward obtained from the 2024 tour. Former Rep. Jason Saine, who is now a lobbyist, confirmed he went after the tours were outed by a distillery worker on a Reddit post. Search warrants say Saine, a Lincolnton Republican who was a chief budget writer, was involved in setting up both tours.
A spokeswoman for House Speaker Destin Hall, a Caldwell County Republican, has said he also did not go on the tours, but he has not sought to find out who in the House did go.
Carolina Forward filed the complaint that started the SBI investigation.
Miller is a member of the House Alcoholic Beverage Control Committee. He said he knew nothing about a possible public-private partnership option to build the warehouse until The N&O’s coverage last month about Jones’ efforts.
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“I don’t remember having any conversations about it,” Miller said.
This story was originally published August 5, 2026 at 5:00 AM.