Dem Congressman From Maryland Hit With Ethics Complaint Over Wife’s Huge Stock Payout
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin got hit with an ethics complaint today over his failure to properly disclose stock shares of his wife. His wife, Sara, also happens to be President Joe Biden’s nominee to be the Federal Reserve’s top banking regulator.
Jamie Raskin disclosed information about Sarah’s stock transaction in August 2021. Eight months after Sarah sold 195,936 shares of Reserve Trust for $1.5 million. Federal financial disclosure listed the initial transaction date as Dec. 18, 2020.
The American Accountability Foundation, a conservative ethics watchdog, filed the ethics complaint claiming that Raskin violated federal financial disclosure reporting obligations by waiting too long to report the payout.
“Sarah and Jamie Raskin are career politicians who have used the system to enrich themselves, and it is time that someone holds them accountable,” Tom Jones, the founder of the American Accountability Foundation.
“If House rules are going to mean anything, the House Ethics Committee needs to open an investigation and sanction Jamie Raskin for hiding this shady stock deal from the public.”
“We lost our son during the reporting period, and I filed the report late,” Raskin told a media outlet that questioned him about the incident. Raskin’s son Thomas was a 25-year-old Harvard law student when he died by suicide.
Thomas left a note for his family which read: “Please forgive me. My illness won today. Please look after each other, the animals, and the global poor for me. All my love, Tommy.”
The complaint from the American Accountability Foundation agreed that Raskin should be “afforded some latitude in meeting filing requirements,” as a result of his son’s tragic death but noted Raskin returned to his official duties quickly.
“If Representative Raskin was able to perform these official duties during this time, it is reasonable to expect that he should have been able to comply with the Periodic Transaction Report requirements during these times and not frustrate the legitimate ends of Congressional oversight by waiting nine months to disclose the sale,” the complaint says.
From The Blaze:
According to AAF, Raskin violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge, or STOCK Act, by failing to report his wife’s financial gain in time.
The law was passed in 2012 and is intended to increase transparency on Capitol Hill by making it illegal for members of Congress or their families to profit by trading stocks with insider knowledge.
Under the law, Sarah Bloom Raskin’s stock payout should have been reported to Congress within 45 days of the transaction.
The complaint was first reported by Fox Business. It cited a Business Insider report that revealed that Jamie Raskin disclosed in August 2021 that his wife Sarah Bloom Raskin sold 195,936 shares of Reserve Trust for $1.5 million, according to his federal financial documents.
But Raskin reported the stock sale, which happened on Dec. 12, 2020, eight months after the fact.