EXPOSED: Susan Collins Has Been Hiding Insider Stock Trades
The Maine Senator has been unethically making millions in Congress.
Susan Collins has spent her Senate career selling herself as one of the last reasonable Republicans: a moderate, a straight shooter, someone who puts principle above politics.
She helped write a federal law requiring members of Congress to disclose stock trades within 45 days. Then she violated it, repeatedly.
What She Actually Did
A review of Collins’ financial disclosures from 2013 to 2018 found 24 transactions reported more than 100 days late. Not a little late. More than twice the legal deadline. The trades, made by her husband Thomas Daffron, a former lobbyist, included shares of Microsoft, JPMorgan Chase, and CVS. Total value of the hidden trades: up to $395,000.
Earlier this year, she did it again. Daffron purchased a Pfizer corporate bond worth up to $50,000 on February 3. Collins didn’t disclose it until late March, five days past the legal deadline. Her office confirmed the violation and blamed a delay from a third-party adviser.
That explanation covers the Pfizer bond. It does not explain 24 separate late disclosures spread across five years.
The Pfizer Problem Runs Deeper
Collins sits on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which has direct jurisdiction over the FDA, the CDC, and the NIH. Pfizer spends over $10 million a year lobbying the federal government. Collins’ committee has authority over virtually everything that affects Pfizer’s bottom line.
Her spokesperson called the conflict of interest “zero.”
Analysts looking at the trading patterns disagree. The combination of committee access, undisclosed trades, and a husband who spent years as a professional lobbyist raises questions that a quick dismissal does not answer.
She Wrote This Law
This is the part that makes it indefensible. Collins was not just a passive supporter of the STOCK Act. She was its champion. She became the first Republican to back the measure when it was introduced in 2012 and helped drive it to passage.
“At a time when polls show low public confidence in Congress, there is a strong desire to address the concerns that underpin the public’s skepticism and assure the American people that we put their interests above our own,” she said at the time.
She said that. Then spent years filing disclosures more than 100 days late on hundreds of thousands of dollars in trades.
When reformers later pushed to go further and ban congressional stock trading entirely, Collins opposed that too. Eighty-one percent of American adults support a full ban according to a Brennan Center survey. Collins said no.
Follow the Money
In 2001, Collins reported a net worth between $111,000 and $315,000. By 2013, less than a year after marrying Daffron, her net worth had climbed to $3.8 million. Today it sits at $6.9 million.
Earlier this year, reports revealed that Collins and Daffron personally profited from the war in Iran through substantial oil and gas holdings.
The woman who told voters she puts their interests above her own has turned her Senate tenure into a very comfortable financial arrangement.
Her Opponent Has Already Taken a Stand
Collins is running for a sixth Senate term this year. Her likely Democratic opponent is Graham Platner, an oysterman and veteran who has already pledged to support a full congressional stock trading ban.
The contrast is clear. One candidate built personal wealth through undisclosed trades in companies her committee oversees, then blocked legislation that would have stopped it. The other wants to end the whole system.
Maine voters get to decide which one represents their interests this November.
Collins built her reputation on being different from the rest of Washington. The financial disclosures tell a more familiar story.
She has long been a snake. Thanks for continuing to out her forked tongue.