Rep. Dan Crenshaw has again violated a federal insider trading and transparency law by failing to properly disclose a pair of personal stock-option trades, according to new congressional financial filings reviewed by NOTUS.
Crenshaw, a Texas Republican, purchased up to $15,000 worth of stock options in Meta, the parent company of Facebook, on April 28. He then sold an equal number of Meta stock options at a higher price point on May 5, the financial filing indicates.
In both cases, Crenshaw publicly disclosed his stock-option purchases about a month past a 45-day federal deadline mandated by the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, which lawmakers have regularly violated since Congress passed it in 2012. The law, meant to defend against lawmaker insider trading and conflicts of interest, only carries a $200 initial fine for violations, which the House and Senate ethics committees may waive at their discretion.
It’s unclear precisely how much money Crenshaw, who earlier this year lost his reelection bid in a Republican primary, earned from the transactions.
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Crenshaw made disclosures this week of other personal stock purchases, including shares of Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and the United States 3x Oil Fund, a now-delisted exchange-traded fund that aims to triple the performance of light, sweet crude oil futures. These purchases were disclosed within the deadline mandated by law.
Crenshaw sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, whose jurisdiction includes energy policy and telecommunications.Crenshaw’s chief of staff, Jerome Vainisi, told NOTUS that “Rep. Crenshaw has no comment to offer on this story.”
Crenshaw’s STOCK Act violations come the same week the U.S. House passed the Stop Insider Trading Act, which would ban members of Congress trading individual stocks, although it would allow them to retain existing stock holdings.
Crenshaw voted in favor of the Republican-backed bill, which also attracted 13 Democratic votes to advance the measure by 232-198. The bill’s prospects in the Senate, however, appear bleak.
This is also not the first time Crenshaw violated the STOCK Act. He failed to properly report several personal stock moves in early 2020, including trades of Amazon, Southwest Airlines and Boeing.
“Any reporting issues were unintentional and are being corrected immediately,” Crenshaw told the Houston Chronicle after The Daily Beast first reported on the matter.
Rep. Laurel Lee (R-Florida) also appears to have violated the STOCK Act’s disclosure rules. This week, she reported her husband’s sale of up to $50,000 in Nokia stock shares a couple weeks after the STOCK Act’s reporting deadline.
Lee’s congressional office acknowledged an inquiry from NOTUS but did not respond to questions.
Crenshaw and Lee join a roster of other members of Congress who in the past year have violated the STOCK Act with improperly disclosed financial trades.
They include then-Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) and Sens. Katie Britt (R-Alabama), Susan Collins (R-Maine), John Hickenlooper (D-Colorado), Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota) and John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania).
In the House, STOCK Act violators include Reps. Linda Sánchez (D-California), Julia Letlow (R-Louisiana), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Lisa McClain (R-Michigan), Pat Ryan (D-New York), Sheri Biggs (R-South Carolina), Donald Norcross (D-New Jersey), Tim Walberg (R-Michigan), Rich McCormick (R-Georgia), Ritchie Torres (D-New York), Troy Nehls (R-Texas), Dan Meuser (R-Pennsylvania), Jonathan Jackson (D-Illinois), George Whitesides (D-California), Val Hoyle (D-Oregon), Austin Scott (R-Georgia), Shri Thanedar (D-Michigan), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida), Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington), Kelly Morrison (D-Minnesota), Christian Menefee (D-Texas), Daniel Webster (R-Florida), Ed Case (D-Hawaii) and Scott Franklin (R-Florida). Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Oklahoma) was also late, although his office denies it.
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