Rep. Mike Kelly, a Republican from Pennsylvania, has been found in violation of the House’s code of conduct by the House Ethics Committee. This determination comes after a lengthy investigation scrutinizing whether Kelly’s wife, Victoria, made an investment in a steel company based on insider information he acquired while serving in Congress.
In a detailed report released on Friday, the committee raised alarms about Kelly’s behavior throughout their inquiry. They mandated that the Kellys must divest their stock in the steel company before Kelly undertakes any further official actions related to it.
However, the committee did not find concrete evidence that he broke laws or rules concerning insider trading and conflicts of interest.
In a recent statement, Kelly pushed back against the inquiry, saying it unjustly extended for nearly five years and expressed hope that he and his family could move past this issue.
According to the report, at a time when Kelly was working to implement tariffs to safeguard a specific type of steel produced in his constituency, his wife purchased 5,000 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock for $23,075—just one day after learning the relevant plant would still be operating. This information was not made public until later, and soon after, the shares were sold for a profit of $64,476.06.
Even more troubling to the committee was a later purchase of additional shares by Victoria during the investigation, which heightened their concerns.
The report stated, “The Committee is especially worried about Representative Kelly’s conduct during the Committee’s inquiry, particularly due to his wife making another purchase of stock in that company while the investigation was active. Kelly failed to disclose this transaction on time and did not answer Committee queries regarding it.”
Throughout the investigation, the Kellys exhibited a notable lack of cooperation, as the committee emphasized in their findings.
Due to Victoria’s unwillingness to assist and her noted health issues, they could not verify if she had obtained any restricted information from her husband or the rationale behind her stock purchase.
Consequently, the report indicated that the Committee could not establish sufficient evidence to claim Rep. Kelly had engaged in or facilitated insider trading.
They reviewed more than 25,000 documents and had an interview with Rep. Kelly. Notably, Victoria Kelly declined to participate in a voluntary interview or to respond to written inquiries from the Committee, pointing to her previous cooperation with document requests and health concerns.
During his own interview, several of Rep. Kelly’s answers to pivotal questions appeared inconsistent, both during his testimony and with what he had previously written to the Committee.
“Most alarming was their refusal to address a focused set of written questions about the second stock purchase,” alerting the committee to potential issues.
The report concluded with concerns about Kelly’s failure to promptly disclose this purchase and his lack of responsiveness, pointing to an overarching issue with how he acknowledged the serious nature of these allegations. The committee expressed that he has not demonstrated adequate recognition of the honor of the institution and the impact of perceived misconduct.
