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One of the House’s leading Democrats is facing a new ethics complaint after his wife managed to rake in a $1.5 million stock sale payday.
In a complaint filed Friday, the Center for Renewing America, a conservative organization, “renewed an ethics complaint against Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., for failing to properly disclose his wife’s stock holdings,” Fox Business reported.
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,” says a letter from Center for Renewing America President Russ Vought, filed with the complaint.
The complaint reiterates allegations of misconduct against Raskin that initially emerged in 2022. Reports from FOX Business and Business Insider revealed that the Maryland Democrat had delayed disclosing a $1.5 million payout his wife received after selling 195,936 shares of Reserve Trust. Although the initial transaction occurred on December 18, 2020, according to a federal financial disclosure, Rep. Raskin, who serves as the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, did not file paperwork disclosing the trade until August 2021.
The American Accountability Foundation, a conservative watchdog group, had previously filed an ethics complaint against Raskin over the disclosures in 2022. However, that complaint has since lapsed.
The Center for Renewing America has lodged a new complaint that seeks to reopen the issue after these allegations derailed President Biden’s nomination of Raskin’s wife to the position of Federal Reserve vice chairwoman for supervision.
Vought, who previously served as the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director under former President Trump, has accused Rep. Raskin of violating the Ethics in Government Act. This accusation stems from Raskin’s alleged failure to report his wife’s earned income in his financial disclosures for the years 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, Fox Business reported.
“This failure is a clear violation of Raskin’s reporting duties and also raises serious questions about further potential violations,” the letter says, according to the outlet. “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.”
The Center for Renewing America is requesting that the Office of Congressional Ethics look into whether 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 states in conclusion. “Accordingly, the Center for Renewing America respectfully requests that OCE open an investigation into this matter.”
In December, the GOP-led House voted to open an official impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
By a party-line vote of 221-212, the Republican-controlled chamber approved the investigation, which is looking into whether Biden improperly benefited from his 53-year-old son Hunter Biden’s international business dealings. Hunter Biden had earlier declined an invitation to testify behind closed doors.
In September, during a House Freedom Caucus press conference, an incredulous Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) tore into a reporter who asked what evidence House Republicans had to begin the inquiry.
“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,” Perry responded, growing increasingly animated and agitated.
“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.
