House Speaker Nancy Pelosi disclosed new stock market trades on Monday, showing purchases of options to buy between $750,000 and $1.5 mill...
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi disclosed new stock market trades on Monday, showing purchases of options to buy between $750,000 and $1.5 million shares of Apple Inc and hundreds of thousands in Microsoft Corp.
In a periodic transaction report signed last Friday and appearing on the House of Representatives' website on Monday, the California Democrat disclosed that her husband, financier Paul Pelosi, on May 13 bought Apple call options for between $500,001 and $1 million.
On May 24, he bought more Apple call options, in an amount between $250,001 and $500,000, the disclosure shows.
On the same day, Paul Pelosi bought Microsoft call options for as much as $600,000 – one option between $50,001 and $100,000 and another with a low of $250,001 and $500,000.
Users on social media platforms including Twitter, Reddit, Youtube and TikTok have scrutinized Pelosi's trade disclosures in recent months, believing her position as House Speaker gives her and her husband an edge.
The disclosure also comes just a week after the congresswoman's husband was arrested for drunk driving and charged with a DUI.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi disclosed on Monday new stock activity, including purchases of options to buy up to $1.5M shares of Apple and up to $600k Microsoft
A 2012 law makes it illegal for lawmakers to use information from their work in Congress for their personal gain. The law requires them to disclose stock transactions by themselves or family members within 45 days.
Pelosi in January signaled that she might be willing to advance legislation to completely ban stock trading by lawmakers as internal and pressure mounted following cases of lawmakers' using information about the impending pandemic to make stock market decisions.
Her openness to legislation regulating lawmakers' stock activity was a reversal from her previous position defending in particular her caucus members' right to trade stocks, saying she errs on the side of trusting them.
Proposals by Democrats in Congress this year to prohibit stock trading by lawmakers have yet to pass.
The disclosure of call options from her husband, Paul Pelosi (right), comes the week after he was arrested for drunk driving and charged with a DUI
Pelosi's stock trading performance ranked sixth-best in Congress in 2021, with Republican Congressman Austin Scott leading the way, according to an analysis by Unusual Whales, a service selling financial data.
Paul Pelosi's purchases of Apple and Microsoft options in May followed a steep Wall Street selloff this year related to worries about inflation and rising interest rates.
So far in 2022, Speaker Pelosi has filed six transaction reports, disclosing several trades in Apple, the world's most valuable company. She has also disclosed trades in Walt Disney Co , Tesla Inc, PayPal Holdings and other widely held stocks.
The Justice Department ended investigations of stock trades by at least three senators ahead of the 2020 market slump, caused by the coronavirus pandemic, without filing charges.
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