If you think there seems to be one set of rules for regular Americans and members of Congress, and their allies in the deep state, and everyone else it appears there is now even more evidence that you aren’t wrong.
Yet another member of Congress has been outed for what appears to be potential insider trading using information available to them as a member in an exclusive congressional committee.
Amidst the political casualties caused by the 2020 congressional stock trading scandal, one member’s oddly opportune transactions went unnoticed that year because he seems to have contravened the law by failing to disclose them.
Representative Mike Garcia (R-CA) sold shares of aerospace behemoth Boeing for as much as $50,000 in August 2020, weeks before his committee released the damning findings of its investigation into fatal accidents involving the 737 Max airliner.
However, unlike other incumbent campaigns that year which were plagued by blockbuster stock scandals, the Garcia campaign was never held accountable for this trade.
Garcia failed to meet the required reporting deadline for the transaction by submitting the necessary documentation on November 23, which was over two months subsequent to the expiration of the 45-day reporting period.
It was two weeks subsequent to the conclusion of the 2020 general election voting period and three days subsequent to Garcia’s declaration of victory when he ultimately revealed the transaction.
The delay was deemed a “egregious” breach of ethics by legal professionals, who also stated that the conditions surrounding the stock transaction give rise to apprehensions regarding whether Garcia exploited his government position to engage in insider trading.
Garcia, in his capacity as a member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, was granted access to an extensive congressional inquiry concerning Boeing’s culpability in the 737 Max disasters.
One month subsequent to Garcia’s transaction, in September 2020, the committee issued its report—a scathing evaluation of the organization—immediately preceding regulatory recertification.
A trading controversy engulfed Congress in the months preceding the Boeing sale involved several legislators who engaged in strategically timed transactions prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the Boeing transaction disclosure did not constitute Garcia’s sole breach of ethics.
Garcia failed to timely disclose two additional transactions in the same report: a purchase of Tesla shares valued between $15,000 and $50,000 on September 4, and an American Airlines purchase in the same price range on July 9, both of which were disclosed over three months after the deadline.
Garcia disclosed that on June 3 and June 5, he sold Boeing shares for a range of $15,000 to $50,000 and $1,000 to $15,000, respectively.
Boeing disclosed disappointing sales figures a few days subsequent to that transaction, which encompassed several cancellations of the 737 Max.
Garcia had emphasized his professional trajectory at Raytheon, a notable defense contractor and primary employer in his Southern California congressional district, while campaigning.
In spite of the seemingly overwhelming evidence against Garcia and other members of Congress for similar behavior it does not appear that any kind of ethics investigation into the behavior is imminent anytime soon.
[READ MORE: Tesla Hit With Massive Recall]
