Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) suggested there was insider trading in Congress ahead of President Donald Trump's pause on tariffs on Wednesday, calling again to ban the practice.
"Any member of Congress who purchased stocks in the last 48 hours should probably disclose that now," AOC said in a publication on X, adding that she has "been hearing some interesting chatter on the floor."
Any member of Congress who purchased stocks in the last 48 hours should probably disclose that now.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 10, 2025
I’ve been hearing some interesting chatter on the floor.
Disclosure deadline is May 15th. We’re about to learn a few things.
It’s time to ban insider trading in Congress. https://t.co/YBKMGbraAu
"Disclosure deadline is May 15th. We're about to learn a few things. It's time to ban insider trading in Congress," added the lawmaker as she responded to a publication from an asset manager showing that the "Nasdaq call volume spiked minutes before" Trump's announcement.
The lawmaker was among several figures drawing attention to the possibility of insider trading on Wednesday, especially considering that the S&P 500 surged almost 10% since the announcement, one of the largest single-day gains since World War II.
Trump said on Wednesday morning that it would be a "great time to buy." Three hours later he added "THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!". Shortly after he made the tariff announcement, which paused tariffs for non-retaliating countries for 90 days and increased them to 125% for China.
California Senator Adam Schiff is seeking a formal investigation on the matter, calling on Congress to do so. "I'm going to do my best to find out," Schiff told Time magazine.
There has also been speculation about insider trading before other announcements. Journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin, who co-anchors CNBC's Squawk Box, also considered the possibility that administration officials made moves in anticipation of the implementation of sweeping tariffs on Monday.
"I don't know where you stand on this, because you're going to say we don't regulate these folks. But, you know, given what the government's been doing and this administration's been doing, it would not shock me, and I hate to speculate, if we were to find out that a whole bunch of people who work in Washington as our elected leaders one way or the other, ultimately sold stocks last week, or potentially worse than that, shorted the market," mused Sorkin during an interview with Mark Uyeda, Acting Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
"My question to you is: What you think the responsibility of the SEC is in those contexts?" the journalist asked Uyeda. "Well, we have responsibility on insider trading regardless of whether they're inside or outside of government," the official replied. "We have a very clearly established body of law for those who engage in acts that are prohibited by the insider trading rules."
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