Five years ago, then-Rep. Tom Malinowski violated a federal insider trading and transparency law by failing for months to disclose dozens of personal stock trades he made at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It prompted formal complaints and subsequent investigations by the Office of Congressional Ethics and House Ethics Committee. Malinowski placed his personal wealth in a congressionally blessed qualified blind trust, endorsed a ban on congressional stock trading and co-sponsored a stock-ban bill in attempts to make amends.
But the scandal contributed to the New Jersey Democrat’s defeat in the 2022 midterms by Republican Tom Kean Jr., who with his allies hammered Malinowski on the issue in ads, forums and debates.