Missouri Senate candidate says Congress members should go to jail if guilty of insider trading

Democratic Missouri Senate candidate Lucas Kunce on Thursday reiterated his support for banning members of Congress and their immediate family members from trading stocks, saying they should face jail time if they are found to be guilty of insider trading.

Last week, senators introduced two bills — one from Democratic Sens. Jon Ossoff (Ga.) and Mark Kelly (Ariz.) and another from Republican Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.) — that would ban Congress members from trading stocks, requiring them to place their investments into qualified blind trusts.

However, Kunce said while appearing on Hill.TV’s “Rising” that the idea of requiring a blind trust was just another “ruse” for U.S. lawmakers to hide behind.

“There’s this idea that a blind trust will suddenly, you know, incubate them from any sort of criticism and it’s absolutely wrong,” Kunce said. “I mean, if you put, if someone puts all of their, you know, privately held coal company stock into a blind trust do they suddenly forget where that’s coming, where their money’s coming from? They don’t right?”

Kunce said the “simple solution” to this issue was banning stock ownership for members of Congress.

“And if they violate the law, the penalty for them is the exact same as it would be for you, as it would be for me and the same as it was for Martha Stewart. You go to jail,” said Kunce.

Watch part of Kune’s interview above.


Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.