Ethics panel: Pennsylvania Republican violated code of conduct with spouse’s stock trades
The House Ethics Committee “found substantial evidence” that Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) violated the code of conduct for the lower chamber when his wife profited off stock trades for a company the congressman was focusing on in Washington.
The report — which spans 28 pages and has three packets of supporting documents — cleared Kelly of intentionally causing his wife to trade based on insider information and having a conflict of interest, determining there wasn't evidence to prove those two wrongdoings.
But the panel found Kelly, a member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, breached the House’s code of conduct “by failing to meet his duty of candor.” The committee ordered he and his wife to divest their investments in Cleveland-Cliffs, the steel manufacturer at the center of the report.
“Representative Kelly’s conduct with respect to Cleveland-Cliffs and his wife’s stock purchase raised significant concerns for the Committee, even if it did not rise to the level of insider trading or clearly violate conflict of interest rules,” the committee wrote, later adding Kelly “has not demonstrated sufficient appreciation for the harm to the institution caused by the appearance of impropriety.”
The panel’s investigation focuses on a series of trades of Cleveland-Cliffs stock that his wife, Victoria Kelly, made in the last five years. Cleveland-Cliffs in........
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