Key Points
- STOCK Act violations are piling up for House Dems.
- They are frequently late in reporting suspicious transactions.
- The problem starts at the top with Nancy Pelosi and works its way down.
Earlier this year, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul drew the ire of watchdog groups when they made $5.3 million dollars exercising options in tech companies that the Speaker regulates. The trade time was curious; the payoff was grand.
The Pelosis got away with, what many consider to be, a blatant example of insider trading. Using government knowledge for personal gain is prohibited under the STOCK Act. It didn’t stop Pelosi and it hasn’t stopped her second in command, either.
Assistant Speaker of the House Katherine Clark, D-Mass., has failed to disclose $285,000 in transactions, “including investments in Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc.; Best Buy; First Solar; investment firm BlackRock; pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline; data management company Iron Mountain; and water technology company Xylem Inc,” Fox News reports.
The transactions were made on June 4th but not reported until August 15th – exceeding the 45-day reporting limit established by the STOCK Act. “Assistant Speaker Clark notified the Ethics Committee immediately upon learning of this transaction,” a spokesperson said.
That’s what they all say.
The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust has also filed complaints against congresswoman and former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Wasserman Schultz bought $15,000 in Westell Technologies stock; one of her children bought $45,000. The trades were made in October 2020, but not reported until July 2021.
That’s more than 200 days past the deadline.
Unfortunately, this scenario has become common. The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust has also called out Reps. Lori Trahan of Massachusetts and Kathy Castor of Florida for dragging their feet when it comes to reporting questionable transactions.
As previously reported by The Drill Down staff, the current version of the STOCK Act is not nearly as successful as the original legislation. There’s a strong case for resurrecting the original bill (Killing the Stock Act in 24 Hours and How to Resurrect It) but, with so many politicians making a killing – including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi – don’t count on it.
