Democrats voted for more of the same on Tuesday, electing 74-year-old Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly to lead the House Oversight Committee, beating out Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 35, despite violating existing stock trade law, according to a report.
Connolly, who will oversee investigations into allegations of fraud and corruption in the federal government when President-elect Donald Trump starts his second term next month, violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act after he failed to disclose three stock transactions ahead of the 45-day reporting deadline in January 2023, a Raw Story analysis found.
All three stocks Connolly failed to disclose have government contracts. They were Dominion Energy Inc., a power generation company that provides service to several government agencies, Science Applications International Corporation, an information technology (IT) company and key contractor for the Department of Homeland Security, and Leidos, another major IT company and contractor for the Pentagon.
The Virginia rep. later told the publication he was late because his financial advisers did not notify his wife, who files his congressional disclosure reports, on time about the stock sales.
Another controversial report from ProPublica also found that Connolly, who championed the HEROES Act, a $3 trillion COVID-19 relief package, included "a section that will funnel money to defense and intelligence companies and their top executives."
The report asserted the legislation was a "stealthy way to bail out the defense and intelligence government contracting industry and their executives at taxpayer expense," Mandy Smithberger, former director of the Center for Defense Information at the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group, told ProPublica.
Originally published by Latin Times
