A prominent Democrat in the House is being investigated over a new ethics allegation that sprang from his wife’s successful $1.5 million stock sale.
On Friday, the conservative Center for Renewing America filed a complaint. “Renewed an ethics complaint against Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., for failing to properly disclose his wife’s stock holdings,” Fox Business said.
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The complaint “highlighted possible violations of federal financial disclosure laws by Raskin, who waited too long to report stock shares that his wife, Sarah Bloom Raskin, received for her work at a Colorado-based financial technology company,” the outlet continued.
“It is imperative that Members disclose assets that they or their families have in compliance with the law so that the public can assess what may be motivating a Member to take certain positions or actions,” The complaint is accompanied by a letter written by Russ Vought, the president of the Center for Renewing America.
The complaint reiterates accusations of past misbehavior against Raskin that first arose in 2022. According to reports from Business Insider and FOX Business, the Maryland Democrat neglected to announce his wife’s $1.5 million payment from the sale of 195,936 shares of Reserve Trust. Federal financial disclosure showed that Rep. Raskin—who also happens to be ranking member of the House Oversight Committee—did not file the necessary papers to disclose the deal until August 2021, even though it happened on December 18, 2020.
In 2022, the American Accountability Foundation, a conservative watchdog group, filed an ethics complaint against Raskin about the disclosures; however, the complaint has since expired.
Following these claims, which interfered with President Biden’s nomination of Raskin’s wife to the post of vice chairwoman of the Federal Reserve for oversight, the Center for Renewing America has filed a fresh complaint requesting to restart the investigation.
According to Vought, the former head of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) at the White House under President Trump, Rep. Raskin broke the Ethics in Government Act. This is related to Fox Business’s revelation that Raskin allegedly neglected to disclose his wife’s salary in his financial filings for the years 2017 to 2020.
“This failure is a clear violation of Raskin’s reporting duties and also raises serious questions about further potential violations,” The site reports that the letter states. “Since Raskin did not see fit to disclose Reserve Trust as a source of income in 2017, it is unclear if he also failed to do so for subsequent years. It is possible that Reserve Trust compensated Mrs. Raskin with further shares for services rendered in subsequent years. Given Raskin’s approach to disclosure, the public would never know.”
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The Office of Congressional Ethics is being asked by the Center for Renewing America to investigate if Raskin “engaged in any actions to benefit his wife’s clients, and specifically Reserve Trust, during the time period for which he did not disclose this asset.”
“The above demonstrates that Representative Raksin has likely violated his disclosure obligations and creates serious clouds around Raskin’s honesty and ability to represent the best interests of his constituents,” The letter concludes. “Accordingly, the Center for Renewing America respectfully requests that OCE open an investigation into this matter.”
The GOP-led House began investigating President Joe Biden’s impeachment in December.
The Republican-controlled chamber authorized an inquiry into whether President Biden unjustly profited from his son Hunter Biden’s overseas business transactions by a party-line vote of 221-212. Hunter Biden turned down the opportunity to testify in private.
At a September news conference for the House Freedom Caucus, Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) chastised a reporter who questioned the veracity of the House Republicans’ decision to launch the investigation.
“This isn’t about political revenge. We have the bank accounts we can see, ma’am. You can see that the homes that the Bidens own can’t be afforded on a congressional or Senate salary. You also understand that it’s not normal for family members to receive millions of dollars from overseas interests,” In response, Perry became more heated and furious.
“Those things aren’t normal. That’s not normal. Have 20 shell country companies, these things are not normal. And it alludes to not only just widespread corruption, but money laundering, if not influence peddling itself,” he continued.
