Evidence Suggests Rep. Manning (NC) Ignored House Ethics Rules and Federal Law
Today, the non-partisan ethics watchdog, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), filed a complaint requesting the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) investigate Congresswoman Kathy Manning of North Carolina for failing to disclose financial transactions within the legal timeframe and presenting conflict of interest concerns.
Federal law and House Ethics rules require Members to provide “full and complete” financial information to the public, including a Member’s assets, debts, income, and periodic reports of financial transactions that exceed $1,000 within 30 to 45 days of the transaction.
Recent reporting shows that Rep. Manning failed to disclose that she and her husband made 51 stock trades in 2021 and failed to disclose these trades until February 11, 2022, outside the window required by law. The stocks had a total value ranging from $275,051 and $1.25 million. Moreover, Rep. Manning's trades were in companies directly related to Congressional action and Rep. Manning's official duties. Many of Rep. Manning's trades were in tech stocks that could be majorly impacted by legislative battles unfolding in Congress over the last year. Several tech companies could have their business operations challenged by a slew of tech-focused antitrust bills. Rep. Manning was one of eight House Representatives seeking to delay the package of antitrust legislation from moving forward in the House Judiciary Committee.
"The OCE must act to ensure compliance with the most fundamental ethics requirements to maintain public trust. In cases where a Member not only fails to make timely disclosures and the Member's stock trades were related to official action, the OCE must investigate both the conflict of interest concerns and late disclosure violations. We urge the OCE to immediately investigate this situation in which Rep. Manning's personal stock trades and official action seemingly overlapped," said Kendra Arnold, Executive Director of FACT.
A full copy of the complaint can be found here.
FACT is a nonprofit organization to promoting accountability, ethics, and transparency in government and civic arenas. For more on FACT, visit: http://www.factdc.org/
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