“While serving as Interior Department secretary under Donald Trump, Ryan Zinke broke federal ethics rules repeatedly by improperly participating in real estate negotiations with the chairman of the energy giant Halliburton at the time and other developers,” the Washington Post reports.
“Now a leading Republican candidate to win a newly-drawn congressional seat in Montana this fall, Zinke also lied to an agency ethics official who questioned him about his involvement in the negotiations.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) told The Independent that efforts to restrict members of Congress from trading stocks, saying it would discourage certain people from serving in politics.
Said Tuberville: “I think it’s ridiculous. They might as well start sending robots up here. I think it would really cut back on the amount of people that would want to come up here and serve.”
The freshman senator reported nearly $1 million in questionable stock trades last year.
“Facing stiff political headwinds and a flagging election-year agenda, the most vulnerable Democrats in Congress have found a way to distance themselves from their leaders: demanding an end to stock trading for all members of Congress, including senior lawmakers who oppose the move,” the New York Times reports.
“The growing list of Democrats who have signed on to ethics legislation that would ban ownership of individual stocks is remarkably bipartisan, speaking to the political power of the issue.”
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The Office of Congressional Ethics said that it had found reason to believe that Rep. Marie Newman (D-IL) offered a job to a potential primary opponent in exchange for the rival to drop out of the race, Insider reports.
The case now goes to the House Ethics Committee, where it will be reviewed by her peers.
“A newly released report by the Office of Congressional Ethics alleges that Rep. Doug Lamborn’s (R-CO) wife has been improperly involved in the running of his congressional office, including routinely asking staffers to perform personal errands on official time, such as moving furniture or setting up Zoom meetings,” Punchbowl News reports.
“Jeanie Lamborn ‘often sleeps’ in the office with the congressman, and she reportedly had an official House email address.”
Twenty-seven House lawmakers have signed a letter urging Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to bring forward legislation that would ban members of Congress from owning or trading stocks, Axios reports.
Politico: “The signatories are the true ideological spectrum. They range from centrists like Reps. Jared Golden (D-ME) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) to progressives such as Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and conservative firebrands like Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL). You simply don’t see that sort of consensus very often these days.”
Related from the New York Times: “In an academic paper published a few years ago, an economist named Serkan Karadas highlighted a suspicious pattern: Members of Congress earned higher than average returns on their stock investments.”
“Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm sold shares of stock 9 times last year and did not disclose the sales within the legally required 45 day window,” CNBC reports.
A new Data for Progress poll finds 67% of Americans are in support of banning lawmakers from trading stocks.
That figure jumped to 74% when voters were given reasons for and against a ban.
“Some progressive Democrats and MAGA Republicans are uniting on a proposal to ban sitting lawmakers from trading individual stocks, although it’s unlikely that leadership will bring the bill up for a vote,” Axios reports.
“House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is considering instituting new limits or an outright ban on lawmakers holding and trading stocks and equities if Republicans take the majority in November,” Punchbowl News reports.
“McCarthy told us his planning on this front is in its early stages, and he hasn’t yet decided on what kind of limitations there may be on stock trades or holdings. One idea would be to force lawmakers to hold only professionally managed mutual funds. Another proposal the GOP leadership is considering would bar lawmakers from holding stocks in companies or industries their committees oversee. Other members have advocated for mandatory blind trusts for lawmakers’ holdings.”
Richard Clarida, the second highest official at the Federal Reserve, will resign early after new details of his trading activity early in the pandemic were revealed, Axios reports.
“Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts says the federal judiciary needs to do more to ensure judges don’t participate in cases where they have financial conflicts of interest,” the AP reports.
“Roberts made the comments as part of his annual report on the federal judiciary released Friday evening.”
“As House ethics investigators were examining four cases this fall detailing a sweeping array of improper financial conduct by lawmakers, they ran into an obstacle: Two of the lawmakers under scrutiny refused to meet with them or provide documents,” the New York Times reports.
“The investigators were not too surprised. Over the past decade, fewer and fewer House members have been willing to cooperate with congressional investigations, a development that ethics experts warn could reduce accountability for misdeeds and erode trust in the institution of Congress.”
Rep. Jim Hagedorn (R-MN) “was more than three months late filing a medical stock trade, putting him in violation of a federal conflict-of-interest law,” Insider reports.
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) “was ordered to turn over roughly $5.1 million in proceeds from his 2020 pandemic memoir within 30 days, after a state ethics board found that he had run afoul of state ethics laws,” the New York Times reports.
“The order, which is sure to set up a protracted legal fight, could be complicated by the fact that Mr. Cuomo already donated $500,000 of the book’s proceeds to charity, and placed another $1 million in a trust for his daughters.”
Insider rated every member of Congress on their financial conflicts and transparency.
“The House Office of Congressional Ethics found ‘substantial reason to believe’ four congressmen — Jim Hagedorn (R-MN), Mike Kelly (R-PA), Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) and Alex Mooney (R-WV) — broke an assortment of ethics laws,” Forbes reports.
“The alleged offenses include misusing official funds, violating campaign-finance laws, misusing confidential information for personal gain and failing to properly report stock trades.”
“The Federal Reserve will bar senior officials from purchasing individual securities and restrict investment activities to broad-based products such as mutual funds, following disclosures that last month that resulted in the resignations of two reserve bank presidents,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The Fed said Thursday the new rules would apply to the system’s 12 reserve bank presidents and the seven governors on the central bank’s Washington-based board.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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