After a four-year inquiry into a stock deal revealed that a Republican congressman from Pennsylvania had broken the House’s official code of conduct, the House Ethics Committee chastised him on Friday and advised him and his spouse to sell their shares in a steel firm in his area.
Representative Mike Kelly, a Ways and Means Committee member, was cited by the committee in its report for lacking candor in its investigation into 2020 trades by his wife, Victoria, involving a local steel company that sought government intervention to stop layoffs or the closure of its plant in Butler, Pennsylvania, in Mr. Kelly’s district.
Mr. Kelly discovered that the Commerce Department would step in to support the company while he was aggressively lobbying the Trump administration for trade protections for the factory, which had just been acquired by Cleveland-Cliffs. Five days before to the public release of the Commerce action, his wife bought 5,000 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock the next day. Later, she made around $65,000, or almost 285 percent, when she sold the stock.
Efforts to strengthen the restrictions or prohibit politicians from trading stocks completely have failed thus far. Members of Congress are required to declare transactions involving more than $1,000 and are prohibited from utilizing sensitive information for financial gain. Many MPs who are involved in the stock market have unique knowledge of or influence over corporations whose shares they are buying and selling, which has led to an environment full of possible conflicts of interest.
According to the report, Mrs. Kelly’s lack of cooperation made it impossible to determine whether she had obtained confidential information from her husband or why she had bought Cleveland-Cliffs stock. However, it did state that the transaction ran the potential of giving the impression that it was improper and self-dealing.
According to the report, even if Representative Kelly’s actions regarding Cleveland-Cliffs and his wife’s stock purchase did not amount to insider trading or blatantly breach conflict of interest laws, they nevertheless caused the committee serious concerns. Additionally, it stated that Representative Kelly’s answers to several important questions during his committee interview were not consistent with his written responses to committee information requests and with his testimony.
According to the report, the committee was also concerned about Mrs. Kelly’s further purchases of the company’s stock in 2024, when the congressman was once more working on a matter that was significant to the business.
According to the report, Representative Kelly’s failure to promptly disclose the purchase and respond to inquiries about it, as well as Mrs. Kelly’s subsequent acquisition of Cleveland-Cliffs stock in spite of the ongoing investigation, are further indications of his disregard for the committee’s role and procedures and his failure to acknowledge the seriousness of the allegations in this case. It said that he has not shown enough understanding of the damage that the impression of improper behavior has created to the organization.
Mr. Kelly, who was first elected in 2010, said in a statement that he and his family are eager to move past this distraction.
Mr. Kelly stated in the statement, “I have fought for the 1,400 workers at the plant throughout this process. I have spoken with these workers, and they appreciate the hard work we have done to fight for those jobs and for Butler.”
