Ron Johnson in big stock play as Americans lose their health, businesses, jobs and savings

[Friday updates: Johnson told the Journal Sentinel that the stock sale was unrelated to the virus outbreak:

Johnson said the deal had been in the works since 2018, long before the current global pandemic. "Obviously, this had nothing to do with the coronavirus," Johnson said via text regarding the sale. 

[Late Friday update: The website RawStory cited in this post has walked back its reporting. I note here the correction, and point out that I had already added a correcting, clarifying business media link, and my own related text in a series of updates over the last 24 hours. I don't believe in deleting posts which include problems; rather I leave them visible, corrections and all, to illustrate the reporting process. I apologize for any discomfort created. JR.] 

Thursday update: Questions were raised separately about NC GOP Sen. Richard Burr's recent stock sales. An expanded story about Burr in Friday's New York Times discloses that stock sales were also made by Diane Feinstein, a Democratic Senator from California, so this activity crossed party lines.]

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When Ron Johnson opined that a fatal Covid-19 infection rate of 3.4% was no big deal, Wisconsinites were right to wonder if he was really focused on his job and the public interest.


Now we can see he's been paying close attention to another set of numbers, the website Raw Story reported.

Third GOP Senator caught dumping stock before the market crash — this time up to $25 million worth

On Monday, March 2nd, the Dow Jones Industrial Average set its biggest-ever point gain.But Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) was massively selling. Johnson, who has a net worth estimated at over $36 million, made a major transaction. 

The exact amount is unknown, as ethics forms only require disclosure in broad ranges, but Johnson reported selling over $5 million that day — and potentially up to $25 million.

Johnson's transactions appear related to this earlier development, rather than a move in publicly-traded shares:

Private equity firm makes equity investment in Oshkosh manufacturer Pacur

Sen. Burr's stock sales look really bad, as he sold holdings in publicly-traded companies hit hard by customer loss due to the outbreak which Burr had said was being well-managed by the government. Stock sales by Georgia's GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler, raised questions, too.

Regardless, media, citizen organizations and other actual leaders should emphasize how bad these Senators look at the same time millions of stressed Americans are losing their businesses, jobs and savings, and should hold these 'public officials' accountable. 

Is it too much to ask that in a time of enormous peril that our public officials could stop acting like one-percenters and really put all their energy and time into the people's crisis?

A piece from CNN Friday about GOP Speaker McConnell's stimulus bill-drafting without Democratic input which carves out big windfalls for airlines suggests the shorter headline here is 'One-Percenters Always Gonna Be One-Percenters.'