Politics

Rep. Jamie Raskin Violated STOCK Act Over Securities Shares His Wife Cashed, Complaint Alleges

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Michael Ginsberg Congressional Correspondent
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Democratic Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin failed to report a stock sale ordered by his wife, who President Joe Biden recently nominated to a Federal Reserve vice-chair, in late 2020, according to a complaint filed by the American Accountability Foundation (AAF).

Sarah Bloom Raskin sold 195,936 shares of the financial services provider Reserve Trust, where she sat on the board of directors from 2017-2019, in December 2020 for $1.47 million. However, Jamie Raskin submitted the filing detailing the trade to the House Clerk outside of the 45-day window required by the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act. The complaint was first reported on by Fox Business.

“Sarah and Jamie Raskin are career politicians who have used the system to enrich themselves, and it is time that someone holds them accountable,” AAF founder Tom Jones told Fox Business. “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.”

The sale was first noted by Republican Wyoming Sen. Cynthia Lummis during Sarah Bloom Raskin’s confirmation hearing to the Federal Reserve’s vice-chair for Supervision of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Lummis questioned whether Raskin was particularly well-compensated because she helped Reserve Trust obtain access to the Federal Reserve’s master account, which allows it to bypass banks when conducting business. (RELATED: Republicans Attack ‘Climate Warrior’ Biden Nominee Who Wants To Reimagine Economy)

Raskin told Insider on Feb. 3 that the delay was due to the late December 2020 death of his son.

“We lost our son during the reporting period, and I filed the report late,” Raskin said.

The complaint, obtained by the Daily Caller, notes that Raskin did not include Sarah Bloom Raskin’s ownership of the Reserve Trust stock “in the annual disclosures covering the years 2017, 2018, and 2019, before the death of his son.”

Raskin’s office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment on the matter.

Congress is currently considering several pieces of legislation that would tighten rules for or even ban members from trading individual stocks, although none have passed out of committee. After initially opposing changes to stock trading rules, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi recently signaled that she could support an overhaul.

“If members want to do that, I’m okay with that,” she told reporters on Jan. 20.

Raskin is one of several Democrats to face recent ethics complaints over the STOCK Act. Iowa Rep. Cindy Axne, New Jersey Rep. Tom Malinowski, and former California Rep. Harley Rouda have all been the subjects of complaints filed with the Office of Congressional Ethics for alleged violations.