Whitehouse Accused Of Profiting From Secret Congressional Information Shortly Before The ’08 Economic Meltdown
WASHINGTON — Yesterday, it was reported that in 2008 as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke privately warned Congress of a looming economic meltdown, U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse allegedly took this sensitive information and made trades on the stock market with it.
As WPRI-TV Providence Reports:
U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse is one of several prominent Washington lawmakers mentioned in a new book that accuses them of potentially making investment trades based on information they received as government officials. The book, “Throw Them All Out,” by former Bush administration official Peter Schweizer, alleges that Whitehouse made a flurry of trades in September 2008 as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was warning members of Congress about a possible financial collapse after Lehman Bros. filed for bankruptcy. (Book accusing Congress names Whitehouse, WPRI-TV , 11/15/11)
“It’s shocking that Senator Whitehouse would take sensitive information from Chairman Bernanke and then immediately use that information and adjust his financial portfolio,” said Rhode Island GOP Chairman Ken McKay. “Rhode Islanders deserve to know from Sheldon Whitehouse if he regularly leverages his position to gain inside information to increase his net worth or if he only does it when America’s economy is on the verge of a meltdown.”
Press Release: Rhode Island Republican Party
A Letter to Republicans from Rep. Carol A. Mumford
Dear members of the RI Republican State Central Committee:
It is as a recently retired member of the Rhode Island General Assembly, and not as your Republican National Committeewoman, that I write this letter to you.
First, I will not be with you to vote on November 16th at the upcoming meeting of the RI Republican State Central Committee. We have two young grandchildren living abroad and it is our tradition to spend the week of each child’s birthday with the family wherever they may be. Tickets were purchased months before dates of the State Central Committee meetings were known and as luck would have it, I will return from London late on the evening of the 16th, just missing the vote by hours. It would not be fair to change the date because others would be inconvenienced. Our bylaws also are silent on proxy voting. The RNC allows proxy voting, but members must travel thousands of miles to many of the meeting venues and voting could be problematic without proxies.
Since I will not be present to talk with you individually, I wanted to take this opportunity now to again voice my support for a closed primary. Through two elections for District Clerk, two elections for District Moderator, and through five elections as State Representative, I would not have been successful were it not for the support and votes which I received at the polls from Republicans, Democrats, and the unaffiliated. All votes were welcomed and appreciated in the November elections where all registered voters were able to vote for the candidate of their choice.
However, I was the Republican candidate endorsed by the Scituate Republican Town Committee, and following redistricting and downsizing, also by the Cranston Republican City Committee. Republicans and Republicans alone chose the candidate. Although I was fortunate not to have had a primary – if one were needed – I would have wanted actual registered Republicans, not those who choose to both affiliate and disaffiliate in the same hour – the “60 second wonders” mentioned by Dave Talan – holding the pen in the voting booth on primary day.
Whatever the outcome, Republicans would have chosen the Republican candidate and that is as it should be.
Wish I could be with you on the 16th.
Respectfully,
Carol A. Mumford