WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Representative Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) is coming under fire again for her financial dealings in Congress, including allegedly failing to disclose trades connected to her committee assignments and stock sales of up to $350,000.
Jack Ciattarelli, her opponent, is actively looking into the congresswoman’s financial situation and has launched a new website called Mikie Made Millions.
Sherrill attributed her success on Wall Street to luck when questioned about her trades.
Sherrill was fined in 2021 for breaking the STOCK Act, a federal rule that requires lawmakers to quickly record stock transactions in order to prevent conflicts of interest, according to Business Insider. According to the outlet, she sold up to $350,000 worth of stocks without officially disclosing them.
Sherrill made trades in at least 179 companies between 2019 and 2021, including companies that were directly impacted by the committees she served on, according to the New York Times. This includes a number of defense contractors while on the House Armed Services Committee, as well as Alphabet and Meta, which she traded while chairing a subcommittee on the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee.
Sherrill has denied any misconduct, claiming that insider knowledge does not help her transactions. Nonetheless, the Times study found 12 possible conflicts of interest between her legislative duties and her business activities.
According to the study, during her time on the House Armed Services Committee, Ms. Sherrill reported purchasing and disposing of shares in a number of defense firms. Among the businesses were Microsoft, Raytheon Technologies, General Dynamics, and Honeywell.
Bipartisan ethical considerations are raised by trading history.
Capitol Trades, the database used for the research, connected transactions to committee activities and public hearings and collated congressional disclosures. Even in the absence of conclusive proof of insider trading, ethics experts quoted in the Times warned that the volume and timing of some transactions raised concerns about the appearance of conflicts.
Since joining Congress in 2019, Sherrill’s net worth has risen to approximately $10.15 million, according to the most recent estimates. Records reveal that during that time, over 300 trades generated reported profits of over $7 million.
Watchdog organizations and some lawmakers have called for stricter regulations on congressional members’ stock trading in response to the findings.
