Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), who is up for reelection in 2024 in the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania, appears to have violated a federal law meant to stop members of Congress from insider trading, Breitbart News has learned.
The law, the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge or STOCK Act, requires that members of Congress file disclosure forms within 30 days of a notice and within 45 days of a transaction of any stocks they or a significant other or dependent trade. One of Casey’s dependent children — the documents do not specify which one, but he and his wife have four adult daughters — on August 31, 2017, sold between $1,001 and $15,000 worth of stock in FirstEnergy Corp. Casey did not file a periodic transaction report, as required by federal law to be filed within 45 days of the sale, until eight and a half months later on May 15, 2018.
Peter Schweizer, the president of the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) and senior contributor to Breitbart News, said this revelation is troubling. Schweizer’s 2011 book Throw Them All Out led to the passage of the STOCK Act in Congress—legislation that Casey voted for when it came up in the Senate—after revelations of significant levels of concerning financial transactions from Washington insiders in Congress were happening.
“It’s not asking much to ask our politicians to report their financial transactions and those of their children,” Schweizer told Breitbart News when asked to react to Casey’s apparent violation of the STOCK Act. “In fact they are required to by law. This sort of behavior only further undermines people’s trust in our government and leaders.”
In addition to his dependent child’s suspect stock trades in energy companies, Casey’s brother and sister are also engaged in activities that have raised ethical concerns regarding the longtime Democrat U.S. Senator’s conduct in office—concerns that run contrary to a carefully-crafted public image that Casey has presented to voters as someone deeply interested in rooting out corruption. Obviously, with these revelations about Casey’s family’s ethically concerning actions taking center stage, any 2024 campaign would thrust these matters front and center for voters who will also likely see very similar concerns with Democrat President Joe Biden’s family members deeply connected to the political influence industry.
Casey will, if he decides to run for reelection—he has not announced a 2024 campaign yet—face voters in a heavily-contested Pennsylvania. No matter who the GOP nominee for president is, Republicans are likely to fight in the important state very hard to try to win its 20 electoral votes that were just as critical to former President Donald Trump’s 2016 victory as they were to President Biden’s 2020 victory. Similarly, the loss of the other Pennsylvania Senate seat to Democrats in 2022—Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) defeated Dr. Mehmet Oz in November—will make this battleground Senate seat all the more competitive for and desirable for Republicans as they seek to retake the U.S. Senate majority next year. Republicans, including National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) chairman Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), have indicated they would like to see businessman David McCormick run again and would coalesce behind him quickly should he decide to do so.
#PASEN: “Daines singled out McCormick with praise, saying he would make an excellent candidate, according to one of the strategists.” https://t.co/RrL1VBoCGS
— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) February 27, 2023
McCormick ran against Oz in the GOP primary last year and nearly shocked him with a victory, coming within a thousand votes in one of the closest races of the cycle. McCormick is set to publish a book soon, and is said to be considering another run.
Casey’s staff has not responded to a request for comment nearly a full week after Breitbart News inquired with his team about this apparent violation of the STOCK Act. But Casey does know the law, which he voted for and supported, very well. In March 2012, when the STOCK Act passed the U.S. Senate, Casey praised it and noted he was a cosponsor of the proposal.
“I cosponsored this bill because I believe it will help ensure that Washington plays by the same rules as everyone else,” Casey said in a statement then. “This is one step toward restoring faith in our government institutions and I am pleased that Washington came together around this important piece of legislation to reassure the American people that their representatives are fighting for their best interests.”
Casey has also made his apparent claims to want to rein in public corruption concerns out of Congress a centerpiece of his time in office. A decade after the STOCK Act passed, in February 2022 last year, Casey released a statement pushing for a complete ban of stock trading by members of Congress.
“I believe my role as a United States Senator is to get up every day and fight to make the lives of Pennsylvanians better,” Casey said in a statement in February 2022. “It is a sacred responsibility and one that I do not take lightly. Members of Congress are here to deliver for their constituents, not to use confidential information to enrich themselves. I support the efforts of my colleagues to ban Members of Congress from trading stocks and will work to get legislation passed quickly. This is a critical step in restoring public faith in government.”
But, again, Casey’s own actions with his dependent child’s stock sales and his failure to report them representing an apparent violation of the STOCK Act seem to run counter to that image he has carefully crafted for himself.
There are several reasons why this partial stock sale from Casey’s dependent child is significant. First, the senator has received approximately $19,000 in campaign contributions from this company. Federal Election Commission (FEC) reports indicate that since 2010 FirstEnergy Corp. Political Action Committee made several multi-thousand dollar donations to Casey’s campaigns. They include a $2,000 donation in May 2010, a $2,500 donation in May 2011, a $2,500 donation in June 2012, a $5,000 donation in December 2013, a $3,000 donation in October 2016, and two $2,000 donations in January 2018.
Perhaps more importantly than Casey’s deep financial and political ties to this company through campaign donations is the revelation too that right around the time the senator’s dependent child sold this stock in August 2017 when the senator was withholding this information from the public despite being required by law to report it as he eventually later did outside the statutory window, the company’s subsidiary FirstEnergy Solutions, announced it was considering bankruptcy.
Then, later in March 2018—again, while the senator was months into his apparent STOCK Act violation by continuing to withhold this information he was statutorily required to have reported previously—FirstEnergy announced it intended to close three plants in Ohio and in Pennsylvania. These closures obviously would be devastating to the regional economies, and the senator had been for months at this point withholding this information from the public he had about his dependent child having sold stock in this company that was a campaign contributor of his.
Casey’s dependent children making stock trades that he has failed to report as required by federal law is hardly the only serious concern regarding the appearance of corruption from the senator and his family. Just over a week ago, Politico reported that Casey’s brother Patrick Casey registered last year to lobby on a number of matters that are before the U.S. Senate.
“Patrick Casey, the brother of Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. Bob Casey who joined Dentons Global Advisors Government Relations last year as a partner, registered to lobby in the fall, and reported lobbying the Senate on issues ranging from implementation of the CHIPS and Science Act to online travel policies last year, disclosures show,” Politico’s Caitlyn Oprysko reported in late February.
The piece cites a spokesperson for Casey as saying that the senator’s office abides by ethics rules that require any lawmaker who has a family member as lobbyist to bar their staff from having any contact with that lobbyist family member on the issue on which they are lobbying. While it is unclear if that actually happened in this case, Casey’s office also did not answer Breitbart News inquiries on this matter when asked why their blanket statement assuring compliance with those Senate ethics rules should be believed given the senator’s mishandling of the aforementioned STOCK Act reporting issues. What’s more, Casey was instrumental in shaping the CHIPS Act in Congress, something his office repeatedly bragged about in press releases.
It does not stop there with Casey and his family. Casey’s campaign, over the course of the past 17 years, has according to FEC filings funneled half a million dollars to his sister’s printing company as well.
“Sen. Bob Casey’s campaigns have funneled more than half a million dollars to a printing company owned by his sister and brother-in-law, raising ethics questions about a family business arrangement spanning more than 20 years,” the New York Post’s Josh Christensen reported earlier this week. “Casey (D-Pa.), 62, has spent more than $500,000 on services from Universal Printing Company over the course of his nearly three-decade political career — more than $200,000 of which was paid between 2005 and 2022 by Bob Casey for Senate, Inc., according to Federal Election Commission filings. Universal Printing’s owner and CEO, Margi McGrath, is the oldest sister of the Democratic senator, has also donated thousands to Casey’s Senate fund and even campaigned on his behalf during his failed 2002 run for Pennsylvania governor.”
Casey’s office similarly did not answer the New York Post’s inquiries about this lucrative financial arrangement his campaign has with his sister’s company. But anti-corruption experts told the Post this is very troubling.
“Any time campaign dollars flow from a sitting US Senator to a family member, ethics alarm bells should start ringing,” Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, said. “Senator Casey is prohibited from using campaign funds to enrich family members, and any semblance of doing so deserves serious scrutiny.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.