Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), whose husband Paul is a prolific and unusually successful stock market investor, has been accused by some of engaging in alleged insider trading on non-public knowledge to help her husband accumulate immense wealth.

On Thursday, former President Donald Trump suggested that Pelosi should be criminally prosecuted for the alleged insider trading, according to TheBlaze.

Trump's comments concerned questions raised by some about the timing of a large sale of Visa stock by Paul Pelosi shortly before the credit and debit card company was hit with an antitrust lawsuit by the Department of Justice.

"She should be prosecuted"

During a press conference on Thursday at Trump Tower in New York City, former President Trump took aim at one of his biggest critics in Congress, former Speaker Pelosi, over a variety of issues that included the allegations of illegal insider trading.

"Nancy Pelosi has a little problem because her husband sold their Visa stock -- they had a lot of Visa stock -- one day before Visa, it was announced that Visa is being sued by the Department of Justice," Trump said. "Just 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, was brought against Visa."

"You think it was luck? I don't think -- She should be prosecuted. Nancy Pelosi should be prosecuted for that!" he added.

BREAKING: Donald Trump says Nancy Pelosi should be prosecuted for insider trading.

He seems to be referencing the Unusual Whales report and stories of the Pelosis selling Visa, $V, before the DOJ lawsuit from days ago. pic.twitter.com/EG5wznf0VK

— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) September 26, 2024

Pelosi sold Visa stock a couple of months before the lawsuit was announced

The former president's timing was off in his accusation, but the underlying point remains the same -- Paul Pelosi sold a significant amount of Visa stock shortly before the DOJ publicly announced this week a massive antitrust lawsuit against the company over its lucrative purported monopoly of credit and debit payment networks.

According to Fox Business, required financial disclosure forms show that Pelosi sold 2,000 shares of Visa for at least half a million dollars on July 1 -- less than three months before the lawsuit was revealed.

It is unclear how long Pelosi had held the Visa shares before they were sold for anywhere from $500,00 to $1 million, or how much, if any, profit he garnered from the transaction.

Notably, however, the New York Post reported that Visa stock fell by more than 5% in share value on the day the lawsuit was announced. Also of note is that there were no prior public indications that the DOJ's lawsuit was impending and the Visa stock had been relatively stable and rising in previous months before the July sale.

The development has resulted, albeit without any real evidence, in suggestions that former Speaker Pelosi was made aware of the imminent legal action by the DOJ and subsequently tipped off her husband with that non-public information so that he could unload the stock before it took a significant hit in share value.

Purely coincidental or secretly informed insider trading?

To be sure, the timing of the Visa stock sale by Paul Pelosi before the DOJ lawsuit was unveiled could be completely coincidental and innocent, though it fits a pattern of other prior stock purchases or sales that conveniently happened just before the value of those stocks was impacted one way or the other by acts of Congress or the executive branch.

Of course, Paul Pelosi isn't talking and the former Speaker's office declined to comment, instead referencing a previous statement in which a spokesperson said, "Speaker Pelosi does not own any stocks, and she has no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions."