The Kentucky distillery tour that sent a group of North Carolina lawmakers and lobbyists to bourbon country in April 2024 has now drawn state investigators into the mix. Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman confirmed that the State Bureau of Investigation has opened a formal probe into the trip, which was organized and paid for by the conservative nonprofit Greater Carolina. At issue is whether the getaway crossed the line on state ethics or lobbying laws, turning what started as a political headache into a law enforcement matter.
According to The News & Observer, Freeman said SBI agents will be looking specifically for violations of North Carolina’s ethics act and lobbying act, and that the review is expected to take several months. Investigators have already begun collecting records tied to the Louisville-area distillery visits as they piece together who paid for what and why.
The scrutiny traces back to a complaint filed last August by the watchdog group Carolina Forward, which accused Greater Carolina of skirting lobbying, ethics and charitable-solicitation rules and of using luxury events to sell access to legislators, according to WRAL. The filing included receipts from the Stitzel-Weller distillery in Louisville that it says show purchases by lobbyist Clark Riemer and state Reps. Kyle Hall and David Willis. The complaint also flagged a Greater Carolina market survey backing expanded gambling as part of the group’s recent political activity.
An invitation obtained by The Assembly shows the “Inaugural Kentucky Bourbon and Churchill Downs” weekend ran from April 25 to 27 and went out under the name of Kevin Wilkinson, who heads The Southern Group’s Raleigh office. An anonymous distillery employee later posted on Reddit that a 33-person contingent from North Carolina arrived loud and disruptive. Greater Carolina and some attendees have pushed back on that account, saying the online story overstates what actually happened.
Former state Rep. Jason Saine has acknowledged that he took part in the trip. He then left the legislature in August 2024 and, by November 2024, had joined The Southern Group’s Raleigh office, as reported by the North State Journal and in the firm’s own announcement. Saine’s new lobbying role, combined with the presence of lobbyists linked to the gaming and spirits industries on the Kentucky tour, has helped fuel critics’ calls for state regulators to examine whether access on the trip translated into influence back home.
Why the law matters
North Carolina’s gift rules generally bar legislators from taking anything of value from lobbyists or from people who do business with or are regulated by the state, unless a narrow exception applies, according to a summary of North Carolina gift statutes. Those laws, along with related disclosure rules, are the yardstick SBI investigators and the State Ethics Commission will use as they sift through receipts, invitations and event records. If officials determine that prohibited gifts were given or that lobbying went undisclosed, the fallout could include administrative penalties, referrals to prosecutors or, in more serious cases, criminal charges.
What’s next
Freeman has said the SBI’s review is focused on Greater Carolina and the Louisville trip itself, and that agents will keep gathering records and interviewing witnesses over the coming months, according to The News & Observer. Greater Carolina spokesman Jonathan Felts has maintained that the organization follows the law and has dismissed some online descriptions of rowdy behavior as exaggerated, while other attendees have declined to weigh in, WRAL reported. In the end, the probe will likely turn on whether investigators can link specific payments or hospitality on the trip to lobbying or gifts that state law simply does not allow.
