Free Republic

The Securities and Exchange Commission was seeking information from collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX earlier this year, the Prospect has confirmed, bringing a new perspective to an effort by a bipartisan group of congressmembers to slow down that investigation. The March letter from eight House members—four Democrats and four Republicans—questioned the SEC’s authority to make informal inquiries to crypto and blockchain companies, and intimated that the requests violated federal law. Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), whom the Republican caucus just elected as majority whip, the number three position in the House GOP leadership, led the letter. In a contemporaneous Twitter thread, Emmer...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hemmed and hawed again last week about the House plan to rein in sketchy trades by members of Congress and their families, making empty noises about getting it done in the wake of a brutal New York Times report ID’ing almost 100 members — nearly 20%! — who reported trades in apparent conflict with their duties as overseers of laws and regulations around American industry in 2019-’21. She’s plainly stalling, and for obvious reasons: Pelosi’s a byword for such trades with her husband — financier Paul Pelosi — making moves that regularly beat the market, often...

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) released a statement late Friday night in which he fumed over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) breaking her promise to vote on the “bipartisan” infrastructure bill this past week. “It’s deeply regrettable that Speaker Pelosi breached her firm, public commitment to Members of Congress and the American people to hold a vote and to pass the once-in-a-century bipartisan infrastructure bill on or before September 27,” the New Jersey Democrat said in a statement. He acknowledged a press release from Pelosi when she said, “I am committing to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill by September 27. I...

Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer (N.J.) said Monday that a letter announcing his resignation that appeared to be from him is “completely untrue,” NorthJersey.com reports. "This disgusting smear campaign is a violation of federal law and is being criminally investigated by the U.S. Capitol Police," he said. "I am confident that they will quickly identify and pursue charges against the perpetrators responsible for this crime." The letter, dated July 29, appears to be on official congressional letterhead and falsely claims that Gottheimer had a sexual relationship with one of his staffers, the outlet reports. It’s unclear how many officials received it....