Senator Josh Hawley hit back at Nancy Pelosi’s tepid explanation and dismissive response to criticism of her husband’s multimillion dollar stock purchase. The purchase came just ahead of a congressional vote with direct ties to the industry in which Paul Pelosi invested — a move many equate with insider trading.
RTM previously reported that Paul Pelosi exercised 200 call options, or 20,000 shares, of semiconductor company Nvidia.
The transaction came just weeks before Congress is expected to vote on bipartisan legislation allocating $52 billion to boost domestic production of semiconductor chips, which would directly benefit the value of Pelosi’s recently purchased stock.
Speaker Pelosi’s Office was dismissive in its response to mounting criticism. The Epoch Times reports Pelosi spokesperson Drew Hammill said:
“The Speaker does not own any stocks. As you can see from the required disclosures, with which the Speaker fully cooperates, these transactions are marked ‘SP’ for Spouse. The Speaker has no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions.”
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., challenged the absurdly poor response and suggested that spouses of congressional representatives should not be allowed to purchase significant blocks of stock.
“Ban stock trading by members of Congress & their spouses,” Hawley said.
Doubling down, Hawley added, “Call it the Pelosi Act.”
The suggestion to limit stock purchases by spouses of congressional representatives, who could be in a position to take advantage of the market via “inside information,” was previously rejected by Pelosi.
According to Blazemedia, last December a reporter asked Pelosi “whether both members of Congress and their spouses should be legally barred from trading individual stocks. Not only did Pelosi scoff at the idea, but she defended such participation.”
Pelosi sniped, “No, I don’t … because this is a free market and people — we are a free market economy. They should be able to participate in that.”
Paul Pelosi’s dubious transaction was criticized by Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist for the left-wing think tank Public Citizen, who told the Daily Caller:
“It certainly raises the specter that Paul Pelosi could have access to some insider legislative information. This is the reason why there is a stock trading app that exclusively monitors Paul’s trading activity, and then its followers do likewise.”
On Monday, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said during an interview on “Fox & Friends First” that Nancy Pelosi was “the ultimate insider,” noting that Paul Pelosi has made controversial stock purchases in the past, namely ahead of the Big Tech hearings on Capitol Hill.
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