Republican Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, bought stock in a defense contractor as he called for more military spending and then dumped the stock when he was asked about it, The Daily Beast reports.
According to a financial disclosure form, Inhofe bought between $50,001 and $100,000 in Raytheon stock Wednesday.
When reporters asked him about it, he dumped the stock.
Inhofe spokeswoman Leacy Burke told The Hill that all of his financial transactions were handled by a third-party advisor and Inhofe was unaware of the purchase.
“The senator has had no involvement in and has not been consulted about his stock transactions,” Burke said. “As such, the Senator was not aware of this stock purchase until it came through the system very early this morning.”
“As a result, the senator has called his financial advisor and they reversed, or busted, the transaction,” she said. “This means that the transaction was canceled before it was settled; the senator never took ownership of it.”
The Daily Beast reported that the stock was dropped less than 20 minutes after they reached out to his office for comment.
Inhofe tells advisor not to buy defense stocks: Inhofe’s office released a letter that he apparently wrote to his advisor.
“Thank you for continuing to manage my financial holdings,” Inhofe wrote in the letter. “Because of my new position as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, it is important for me to not own or trade any defense or aerospace companies. Therefore, I instruct you to no longer purchase defense or aerospace companies as part of my financial holdings.”
Inhofe took over the committee after John McCain’s death.
Inhofe made purchase as he pushed for more military spending:
The purchase was made after he apparently pushed for more military spending. Trump suggested that he wanted to scale back the military budget but Inhofe met with him and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and it was announced after the meeting that the administration would instead seek more funding -- a record $750 billion.
