by Frank Holmes, reporter
A sordid financial scandal involving allegations of insider trading and abuse of office has around a rising force in the Democratic Party.
To make things worse, he campaigned as someone who would wipe out corruption.
Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., has added to his family fortune with some miraculously timed stock trades that critics say are a little too perfectly timed.
Goldman’s latest scandal shows that he bought as much as $65,000 in stocks from companies that showed profits 20-times higher than the stock market average.
Newly filed financial disclosures reviewed by The Horn show that Goldman purchased between $15,001 and $50,000 of stock in BILL Holdings, Inc., and another $1,001 to $15,000 of Nvidia stock between April 10 and May 3.
Nvidia’s stock price rose 41 percent during that time, and BILL Holdings increased 32 percent—both miles ahead of the two percent return enjoyed by the average S&P 500 investor.
It’s not as though he needs the money: Goldman is an heir of the Levi Strauss blue jeans fortune.
But that’s not stopping him—and neither are howls of hypocrisy and abuse of power.
Goldman, who was only elected last November, promised to put his abundant assets into a blind trust if he won. But nearly eight months after the election, he has yet to get around to forming one.
And it’s not because he hasn’t been busy with his finances.
During his time in office, he’s made 727 individual stock trades which could total as much as $30 million, according to CapitolTrades.com.
This is not the first time he’s seemed to have the most perfect broker—or inside tips gleaned from his time in office—guiding his stock purchases.
Goldman has an “uncanny Midas touch” with the stock market, according to investigative reporter and columnist Miranda Devine of the New York Post.
Goldman’s stock transactions are “managed entirely by an investment adviser, with whom he has no discussions about any stock trades since entering Congress,” a spokesman for Goldman told the Washington Free Beacon.
But Goldman’s golden glow gives off a nasty smell of corruption…which opponents say is ironic, since he got elected on promises of cleaning up Washington.
Goldman filed a motion for the House of Representatives to expel his Republican colleague from New York, Rep. George Santos, for being a serial liar.
Anything short of kicking Santos out of office “is a cop-out” and “a way of avoiding the accountability on this expulsion motion,” Goldman told a press conference last month.
He said Congress should toss Santos out of the chamber even though the Republican has not yet been convicted of any crime, because “that is not the measure of whether or not he should be a member of Congress.”
“If Santos is to be expelled for lying, so too should Goldman. And Schiff. And the rest of the Russia hoaxers,” wrote Devine. “If you expelled all the Dems who lied, there would be nobody left.”
The congressman tried to go for the biggest target of the Democratic Party: President Donald Trump.
Goldman, a former legal analyst for far-Left MSNBC, became a lead counsel in Trump’s first impeachment trial—and rode it to election last November.
“Trump abused his power for his personal benefit,” Goldman’s campaign website preached. “He sought to enrich himself.”
But Goldman has definitely cashed in on stocks—a problem that has brought Left and Right together.
Earlier this year, socialist Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., joined with uncompromising conservative Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., to introduce the Bipartisan Restoring Faith in Government Act. It would restrict stock trades by congressmen’s family members.
Nvidia has figured in just such a congressional stock scandals: Paul Pelosi—the husband of rormer Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi—bought up to $5 million in Nvidia stock…just as the House voted to give the company $52 million in taxpayer funding.
Last December, Mr. Pelosi also sold $3 million worth of stick in Alphabet, the parent company of Google … right before the Justice Department investigated the firm for breaking anti-monopoly laws.
Their checkered financial history inspired Senator Josh Hawley, R-Mo., to introduce the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments Act—or the PELOSI Act.
Goldman, a former prosecutor, sold himself as the kind of Democrat who would back strict accountability for politicians who skirt the law.
“Congress must also increase transparency, improve trust in our institutions, bolster the rule of law,” Goldman’s website said. “The Department of Justice must be de-politicized.”
The DOJ could begin its even-handed actions by prosecuting Goldman.
Careful what you ask for.
Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”