Paul Pelosi, husband to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), sold up to $5 million in semiconductor shares that he had recently purchased before the Senate voted on a major computer chip subsidy bill on Wednesday.
Two weeks prior, Paul Pelosi bought 20,000 shares worth between $1 million and $5 million in semiconductor company Nvidia. However, in a disclosure report from Nancy Pelosi filed on Tuesday, it was revealed he sold off 25,000 shares of the Nvidia stock at an average price of $165.05 for a total loss of $341,365.
One day after the disclosure report was filed, the Senate, in a 64-33 vote, passed the $280 billion CHIPS Act, part of which gives a $52 billion subsidy to the semiconductor industry.
The House is expected to pass the bill next week before it goes to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law, Breitbart News reported.
“Mr. Pelosi bought options to buy stock in this company more than a year ago and exercised them on June 17, 2022,” a spokesman from the Speaker’s office said in response to press inquiries regarding her husband’s recent transaction.
“As always, he does not discuss these matters with the Speaker until trades have been made and required disclosures must be prepared and filed. Mr. Pelosi decided to sell the shares at a loss rather than allow the misinformation in the press regarding this trade to continue,” the spokesman said.
The New York Post reported that filings show that Paul Pelosi still owns a stake in semiconductor company Micron worth up to $500,000.
When Nancy Pelosi was asked last week during a press conference if her husband ever made a purchase on information she had received, the Speaker abruptly responded, “No, absolutely not,” before walking out.
The Speaker is among the highest-earning members in the House from stock trading and has previously stated she opposes banning lawmakers from trading stocks.
Lawmakers are required under the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act of 2012 to submit a periodic transaction report within 30 to 45 days of stock transactions over $1,000 made on their behalf or that of their spouses.
In 2011, Breitbart News Senior Contributor and Government Accountability Institute (GAI) Peter Schweizer revealed in his book Throw Them All Out that Nancy and Paul Pelosi purchased, in 2008, 5,000 shares in Visa stocks worth between $1 million and $5 million at an initial public stock offering (IPO) price of $44 per share. CBS’s 60 Minutes, which featured Schweitzer’s reporting, noted that this occurred when legislation was introduced that would have hurt credit card companies. Two days later, the stock rose up to $65 per share, and the credit card legislation was never voted on in the House.
Schweizer’s reporting rocked official Washington with his investigative revelations of insider trading by members of Congress. Left-leaning Slate hailed Schweizer’s blockbuster book on the topic, Throw Them All Out, “the book that started the STOCK Act stampede.”
The bipartisan STOCK Act (Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge) banned insider trading by members of Congress and was signed into law by President Barack Obama on April 4, 2012. The legislation received overwhelming support from both parties. One of the main figures featured in Schweizer’s Throw Them All Out, then-chairman of the House Financial Services Committee Spencer Bachus (R-AL), announced he would not seek reelection after the book’s reporting.
Indeed, Bachus was the only elected official the late Andrew Breitbart ever called on to resign.
CBS’s 60 Minutes did an investigative report on Schweizer’s revelations that won them the Joan Shorenstein Barone Award for excellence in Washington-based journalism.
You can follow Ethan Letkeman on Twitter at @EthanLetkeman.