Trump calls for Pelosi to be prosecuted over suspicious stock move
Former President Donald Trump is calling for U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to be prosecuted over a stock trade that seems to be too good to be a coincidence.
The New York Post reports that Trump made the call on Thursday during a press conference at Trump Tower in New York.
First, we will take a look at what led up to Trump's call.
Then, we will take a look at exactly what Trump had to say about the situation.
Background
This week, it was revealed that Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi, just so happened to get rid of several shares of Visa just before the federal government announced that it was bringing a lawsuit against Visa.
"Financial disclosures show the California Democrat's husband, Paul Pelosi, sold 2,000 shares of Visa on July 1, for at least $500,000. It is unknown how much, if any, profit the Pelosis made in the transaction," Fox Business reported.
The outlet added, "The X account "Nancy Pelosi Stock Tracker" flagged the trade on Tuesday, the same day the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Visa, alleging that the company maintained an illegal monopoly over the U.S. debit card market."
This, of course, is nothing new for Pelosi and her husband, who have made a killing off of the stock market. The big question is whether their success is due to knowledge that Paul Pelosi may have gotten from her wife's position in the U.S. government.
Pelosi, for her part, claims ignorance. But, not that many people are buying it.
Trump weighs in
The former president is among those who seem to believe that Paul Pelosi's Visa trade was simply too good to be a coincidence.
"Nancy Pelosi has a little problem because her husband sold their Visa stock – they had a lot of Visa stock – one day before it was announced that Visa is being sued by the Department of Justice," Trump said on Thursday.
In Trump's view, this looks a lot like insider trading.
"Think of that. Nancy Pelosi sold vast amounts of Visa stock one day before the big lawsuit that we all read about a few days ago. You think it was luck? I don’t. She should be prosecuted. Nancy Pelosi should be prosecuted for that," he concluded.
This is probably not going to happen. Another question is whether Congress is going to ban members like Pelosi from trading. There have been pushes in this direction, but, thus far, they have been unsuccessful.