Stock Trading Led to Tom Malinowski’s Defeat. Now Hoping for a Comeback, He’s Trading Again.

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.

Malinowski is now in the middle of a political comeback, running in a special primary election this week to fill the House seat vacated by New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill. He’s also back to stock trading, according to a NOTUS review of a personal financial disclosure the former congressman recently filed with the House of Representatives.

Gone is Malinowski’s blind trust, replaced by a personal portfolio for him and his wife that includes nearly two-dozen individual corporate stocks worth between $218,000 and $821,000, Malinowski’s disclosure indicates. (Federal candidates are only required to disclose the value of their stock holdings in broad ranges.)

Malinowski reported owning shares of stock in several federal government contractors: Amazon.com, Cintas, Eaton Corporation, Microsoft, Motorola, Nvidia and Roper Technologies.

Others include Automatic Data Processing, Charles Schwab, Mastercard and Zoetis. His wife owns stock in Duke Energy and Pfizer, according to the disclosure.

There is increasing bipartisan support for a congressional stock-trade ban, at least in some form. Lawmakers on the far left, far right and in leadership, including House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries, have endorsed the idea in principle.

Several such bills are pending in the House and Senate, including the Stop Insider Trading Act, which the Republican-led House Administration Committee advanced to the full House last month. But no vote of the full House or Senate has yet taken place.

Lawmakers have pointed to the specter of insider trading, overt financial conflicts of interest and repeated violations of the existing Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge, or STOCK, Act as reasons to back a stock-trade ban.

In a statement to NOTUS, Malinowski campaign manager Kaylie Haberstroh confirmed that Malinowski no longer uses the blind trust he created while in Congress because he “had no reason to pay the high fees needed to maintain a blind trust when he was no longer in Congress.”

Haberstroh said Malinowski has “no personal involvement in how his retirement savings is invested” and that he “strongly supports a stock trading ban for both members of Congress and senior executive branch officials.” If elected, he “will abide by whatever version of the ban Congress adopts,” she said. She didn’t say whether Malinowski would reconstitute his blind trust if no ban gets passed.

The House Ethics Committee could technically resurrect its investigation into Malinowski if he wins his special election primary Thursday and the general election in April.

But the New Jersey Globe — quoting a letter Malinowski received from Ethics Committee counsel Tom Rust — reported in December that the committee “does not currently have an open investigation into the matter” and that “any further investigation must be authorized by the Committee consistent with House and Committee rules in effect at that time.”

In interviews with NOTUS, several of Malinowski’s Democratic opponents running in Thursday’s 12-way special election primary expressed concerns about his stock trading.

“At a time when public trust in government is fragile, members of Congress should err on the side of transparency and avoid even the appearance of conflicts of interest,” said Toral Patel, a spokesperson for candidate Brendan Gill, who reported owning no individual stocks. “Malinowski cost the Democrats a seat in Congress, which allowed President Trump and the MAGA Republicans to gain control of power and wreak the havoc we’re seeing now.”

Cammie Croft, another Democratic candidate who reported owning no individual stocks, said members of Congress must “go beyond the bare minimum required by law to avoid even the appearance of conflicts of interest, so yes, I have serious concerns. After violating the STOCK Act, maintaining a qualified blind trust when you decide to run for Congress again is the bare minimum — not something to walk away from.”

Candidate J-L Cauvin says he doesn’t personally trade individual stocks because “it is ethically terrible and politically stupid,” but he offered Malinowski some latitude.

“To be fair, he isn’t back in Congress yet. But if he doesn’t immediately put his assets in a blind trust upon winning, then we have a big problem that goes beyond ‘concern,’” Cauvin said. “But he should be allowed to enjoy the rights of a private citizen until he isn’t.

Candidate Tahesha Way declined to comment on Malinowski, but spokesperson Sophie Mestas said Way “fully supports banning stock trading by members of Congress” and affirmed that Way owns no individual stocks.

Candidate Anna Lee Williams also doesn’t own individual stocks, with spokesperson Gabriel Borger saying Williams “doesn’t believe representatives should own individual stocks or be allowed to trade based on privileged knowledge or relationships.”

If Malinowski prevails Thursday, he won’t have to contend with Kean, who remains a congressman serving another district: New Jersey’s 7th. As a congressman, Kean himself violated the STOCK Act in 2023 with late trade disclosures.

Instead, Malinowski will face Republican Joe Hathaway in the April 16 general election in a pivotal matchup with direct implications for Republicans’ razor-thin majority in the House. A Republican victory would offer the GOP needed cushion for the rest of 2026 ahead of the midterm elections in November.

Hathaway, who reported owning no stocks other than shares in Home Depot owned by his wife and valued at between $1 and $1,000, said he believes all members of Congress must exit the stock-trading business.

“Tom Malinowski will always put personal profit ahead of the public trust. He violated laws to prevent insider-trading during COVID, cashed in while in office, and abandoned his blind trust after losing reelection,” Hathaway said. “He still holds stocks tied to congressional business, leaving his campaign mired in conflicts of interest … I will fight to ban Members of Congress and their families from owning or trading individual stocks while serving the public.”