Pull Up A Barstool, Susie Lee’s Stock Trades Catch Dave Portnoy’s Eye

The Globe has extensively covered Nevada Democratic Congresswoman Susie Lee’s (CD-3) history of timely stock trades and legislative votes that have benefited Lee and her ex-husband’s financial portfolio. Yesterday, a stock purchase caught the eye of Dave Portnoy, president of BarStool sports (and father to Miss Peaches).

Portnoy was tipped off through a social media post from Nancy Pelosi Stock Tracker who announced that Rep. Lee bought $15,000 of German war weapons maker Rheinmetall on behalf of her child.

@Pelosi Tracker found this is the first time a lawmaker has every purchased the stock and noted that Rep. Lee is a member of the House Appropriations Committee and the Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies.

New Notable Politician Trade Alert ✍️

Rep. Susie Lee just bought $15K of a German war weapons maker Rheinmetall, $RNMBY

Why is this notable? Three reasons.

1) No politician has ever filed a buy of $RNMBY before

2) RNMBY is already up 70% YTD

3) She just happens to sit on a… pic.twitter.com/OW32B9Ntu0

— Nancy Pelosi Stock Tracker ♟ (@PelosiTracker_) May 28, 2024

I started following politician trades after last week’s rant and it seems like where there’s smoke there’s bound to be fire #DDTG https://t.co/j2k9nksZ7R pic.twitter.com/nsukHzhpot

— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) May 29, 2024

The stock purchase caused Portnoy to ask “What do you mean The buy was from a child? What does that mean? A child bought a german war weapons maker under her name? That doesn’t even make sense,” Portnoy exclaimed.

Portnoy then bought a “shit-ton” adding, “Where there is smoke, there is fire.”

There has been some smoke when it comes to the ethical issues surrounding Lee’s stock trades and her continuous and past violations of the STOCK Act.

The ethical issues surrounding Rep. Susie Lee’s stock trades and her support of legislation tied to her extensive financial portfolio have been covered by Business Insider, The Daily Beast, Mother Jones, and The Nevada Globe.

Business Insider previously reported Lee violated the STOCK Act by failing to properly disclose trades worth up to $3.3 million and has violated that STOCK act more than 200 times.

The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 requires members of Congress to report stock and other financial trades for themselves and their spouses within 45 days of making them or face financial penalties. The Insider report confirms, through research of financial disclosure documents that Lee and her husband failed to report eight stock trades on time in 2021.

In a statement, Lee’s office told Insider that “the congresswoman’s financial advisor noted an inaccuracy in the list of trades when preparing her annual disclosure and that she filed an updated report once she found out.” Her office also noted that “Lee herself does not make the trades — a third-party money manager does — and that she’s since been in contact with the House Committee on Ethics.”

Mother Jones reporter Emma Rindlisbacher raised ethical concerns and questions surrounding Rep. Susie Lee’s portfolio investments and financial gains seemingly timed with her introduction of related legislation. The piece is all the more eye-opening because the venerable left-leaning magazine directed these concerns against a Democratic Congresswoman facing a re-election campaign. According to Mother Jones, the Congresswoman wrote yet another law that would reap millions in returns.

When we asked Lee about the stock transaction and Portnoy’s comments, her spokesperson Christopher D’Aloia replied:

“Representative Lee has never directed an individual stock trade whatsoever and she strongly supports a ban on Members of Congress directing trades of individual stocks. Representative Lee does not own this account and has no authority to direct any trades made — she had no knowledge of the trade as the account is managed by her ex-husband on behalf of their children, the sole beneficiaries of this account.”