Sen. James Inhofe Bought Defense Stock Days After Pushing for Record Pentagon Spending
Just days after signaling his support for unprecedented levels of U.S. defense spending, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, reported purchasing tens of thousands of dollars of stock in one of the nation’s top defense contractors.
After The Daily Beast asked about the purchase, Inhofe’s office said the senator had contacted his financial adviser to cancel the transaction and instructed him to avoid defense and aerospace purchases going forward.
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“The requested defense budget increase was no longer ‘nonpublic’ because it had already been publicized,” said Brendan Fischer, the director of federal reform programs at the Campaign Legal Center. “But Inhofe likely has other nonpublic inside information, such as insight into what the final budget will look like and which industries stand to benefit.”