The congressional stock trading scandal of 2020 claimed its share of political victims, but one member’s curiously well-timed trades that year flew under the radar—because he appears to have broken the law about disclosing them.
In August 2020, Rep. Mike Garcia (R-CA) sold up to $50,000 in shares of aerospace giant Boeing, weeks before his committee released the damning results of its investigation into deadly crashes involving the company’s 737 Max airliner.
But while other incumbent campaigns were dogged by blockbuster stock scandals that year, the Garcia campaign never had to answer for this trade. That’s because Garcia blew the mandated deadline to report the transaction, only filing the paperwork on Nov. 23—more than two months after the 45-day reporting window had closed. When he finally did disclose the sale, it was two weeks after the 2020 general election votes were cast, and three days after Garcia declared victory. He won by 333 votes.
