House Oversight Committee member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) is the subject of a renewed ethics complaint for failing to properly disclose his wife's stock holdings.
According to Fox Business, the Center for Renewing America highlighted possible violations of federal financial disclosure laws by Raskin in a complaint filed last week. The complaint claims Raskin exceeded the deadline to report his wife's significant stock shares in a Colorado-based financial technology company.
The American Accountability Foundation, a conservative watchdog group, previously filed an ethics complaint against Raskin in 2022, but that complaint has since expired.
The complaint reintroduces misconduct allegations against Raskin that first surfaced in 2022, when FOX Business and Business Insider reported that the Maryland Democrat had waited eight months to disclose a $1.5 million payout his wife received after she sold 195,936 shares of Reserve Trust. A federal financial disclosure listed the initial transaction date as Dec. 18, 2020, but Rep. Raskin, the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, did not file paperwork disclosing the trade until August 2021.
“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,” the letter from Center for Renewing America President Russ Vought states.
The Center for Renewing America requests that the Office of Congressional Ethics investigate 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 concludes. “Accordingly, the Center for Renewing America respectfully requests that OCE open an investigation into this matter.”
Former Trump Administration White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director called the move by Raskin a “clear violation” and accused the lawmaker of violating the Ethics in Government Act by neglecting to report his wife's earned income in his 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 financial disclosures.
“This failure is a clear violation of Raskin's reporting duties and also raises serious questions about further potential violations,” the letter states. “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.”
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