Hawley’s ‘PELOSI Act’ Would Outlaw Insider Trading for Congress

Lawmakers and their spouses would be prohibited from using privileged information to trade stocks, under legislation introduced Tuesday by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. 

Hawley’s bill follows news last year that then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, traded between $1 million and $5 million worth of semiconductor stocks shortly before Congress allocated $52 million to the industry. 

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NJ-7 Democrat Malinowski Under Investigation for Murky Financial Dealings, Also Benefited from Well-Timed Stock Trades

Incumbent U.S. Representative Tom Malinowski (D-NJ-07) appears to have financially benefited from exceptional timing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Hill reported in 2021 that Malinowski previously faced two ethics complaints about his failure to report “trading roughly $1 million in stock in medical companies that were involved in responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Malinowski’s stock trades, when viewed in the context of the COVID-19 timeline in the United States, lead reporters at The Hill and The AP to more closely follow his financial activities. However, The Star News Network, using publicly available and verified information, found that Malinowski benefitted from an extraordinary navigation of technology, luxury, and medical market sectors.

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Florida Rep. Wasserman Schultz Bought Domestic Oil Stocks Just Before Price of Oil Skyrocketed

A congresswoman from Florida purchased large amounts of stock in a U.S. oil drilling company just as oil and gas prices hit record highs, and just before the beginning of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. 

According to financial disclosure forms, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL-23) purchased up to $45,000 worth of stock in a Houston-based oil drilling company called Patterson UTI Energy. 

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Republican Members of Congress Oppose Kevin McCarthy’s Proposal to Limit Insider Trading

After House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) proposed possible new legislation to limit the practice of insider stock trading among members of Congress, even some within his own ranks have anonymously voiced their opposition to such a plan.

As reported by the New York Post, McCarthy first made the suggestion to Punchbowl News, suggesting such a bill as one of many things he would want to see introduced if the GOP retakes the majority in November. Among other things, his proposal would restrict members to only holding professionally managed funds, as well as prohibit lawmakers from owning stocks in companies that are overseen by committees they serve on.

McCarthy pointed to the example of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has a net worth of over $100 million, and whose husband was found to have traded millions more worth of tech stocks. “I just think if you’re the Speaker of the House, you control what comes to the floor, what goes through committee, you have all the power to do everything you want,” McCarthy said on Tuesday. “You can’t be trading millions of dollars.”

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Ethics Complaint Filed Against Florida Rep. Wasserman-Schultz over Alleged Insider Trading

A complaint has been filed against Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-23) by the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT). The complaint is calling on the Office of Congressional Ethics to launch an investigation into Wasserman Schultz “for violating federal law and House ethics rules.”

The complaint alleges Wasserman Schultz failed to disclose financial transactions on time, along with a dependent child’s financial transactions.

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U.S. Sen. Burr Steps Down from Senate Intelligence Committee Chairmanship

A day after his cellphone was seized by federal agents as part of an FBI investigation into insider trading, North Carolina U.S. Sen. Richard Burr is leaving his position as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

“Senator Burr contacted me this morning to inform me of his decision to step aside as Chairman of the Intelligence Committee during the pendency of the investigation,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said in a statement. “We agreed that this decision would be in the best interests of the committee and will be effective at the end of the day tomorrow.”

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The Department of Justice Is Probing Senator Richard Burr’s Stock Trades: Report

The Justice Department is probing a series of stock trades that Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) made in the weeks after receiving briefings about the coronavirus pandemic, CNN reported.

The Justice Department is coordinating with the Securities and Exchange Commission on the matter, and the FBI has contacted Barr, a North Carolina Republican, according to CNN, which cited two people familiar with the matter.

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Question Posed: How Did Bob Corker Go from ‘Dead Broke’ to $69 Million Net Worth During 11 Years in U.S. Senate?

  “How do you increase your net worth by 69 million dollars while you’re working full-time as a Senator?” That’s the question Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi asked about Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) on Friday. Neither Taibbi nor Rolling Stone are fans of Corker (or of President Trump, Republicans, or conservatism in general). And Rolling Stone has had problems of its own, recently, as has Taibbi. Nonetheless, Taibbi puts a fine point on what many political watchers across the Volunteer State have been asking for years. Federal campaign contributions and lobbying data tracker Open Secrets has perhaps the most jaw-dropping illustration of Corker’s rise to wealth. As Rolling Stone’s Taibbi writes, “Corker didn’t just enter the Senate without any money. He entered it carrying, according to his own disclosure forms, a mountain range of huge loans.” Setting the stage for his ‘promotion’ from Chattanooga Mayor to U.S. Senator, Taibbi writes of Tennessee’s junior senator: Corker took office in January, 2007, during the last gasp of the Bush/Rove political juggernaut. The Iraq war had gone south and the Republicans had just been routed in midterms. The financial crisis was just around the corner. And nobody paid attention to the smooth-talking freshman Senator from Tennessee, who turned…

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