Nasty Nancy Pelosi and her slippery stock-trading husband, Paul Pelosi, are set like two fat rats from the profit they made on paper with inside knowledge that soon everyone would be relying on home delivery for basic survival. The insider trading scheme was quickly debunked by Politifact, or was it?
An illegal scheme despite the ‘checked’ facts
The liberal left absolutely loves “fact check” censorship. All they have to do is find one or two tiny flaws in a scandalous accusation, for it to be declared “fake news” and the issue is buried forever. One case in point is the Pelosi insider stock trading scheme.
Politifact declares that the “timeline for the stock trades in question” was “misstated.” They also maintain that the investment gains were “overstated.” So, what do they agree on? “Pelosi’s husband bought stock that later increased in value.” At the heart of the scheme was inside knowledge that Americans forced to stay home in quarantine would inevitably turn to Amazon for supplies. As expected, “Amazon’s business increased as many Americans opted to shop online.”
As Politifact writes, “The article alleges that ‘recent reports show that on Jan. 17, Pelosi and her husband bought millions of dollars in Amazon stocks, soon after she began receiving briefings about the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the United States.'” Politifact admits at least part of the scheme. They grudgingly acknowledge that “Pelosi’s husband bought stock that later increased in value,” but swears up and down that “it was nearly two weeks before House members were briefed about the COVID-19 outbreak.”
Someone put the briefing together
The huge purchase was made “two weeks before all the House members were briefed.” At once, in a group. Someone had to put that briefing together. There may not have been a formal briefing, but the stock purchase scheme happened “during the time frame that closed-door coronavirus meetings were being conducted in Congress,” Truepundit writes. That means there still could have been illegal insider trading, even if the timing doesn’t line up with the official briefing schedule.
Politifact got dragged into it at the beginning of April, when IndependentCitizen noticed the daily price for Amazon stock was up around $2,000 a share. By doing basic arithmetic, they calculated the value of the stock held by Pelosi had “earned the Pelosis $1.1 million in 10 weeks.” Truepundit updated that figure on Friday. They claim Friday’s share price of $3,000 gives Pelosi a $5 million profit from the scheme. As gravy on top of that, Paul Pelosi held 40 additional call options on Amazon stock too and sold those on Jan. 17 as well, netting him between $500,000 and $1 million.” As Politifact pointed out before, that’s only on paper. They have to sell the stock before they realize the $6 million profit.
Nancy Pelosi is no stranger to insider stock trading. She even has a provision named after her. Back in 2011, Paul Pelosi was caught in another scheme. He was illegally investing in Visa stock which he bought in the credit card company’s 2008 initial public offering. He bought in right as “Congress was considering new credit card regulations.” The value doubled real fast. Five months later Congress passed the Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge Act. It “prohibits lawmakers from using their insider knowledge to trade stocks.” That’s when “Republicans added the so-called Pelosi provision to prevent government officials from gaining special access to IPOs,” Politifact notes.
