Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin violated a federal financial conflicts of interest and disclosure law by failing to properly disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock and bond trades, a NOTUS review of new congressional documents found.
The Oklahoma senator was two-and-a-half years late reporting seven stock purchases by his wife and about one-and-a-half years late disclosing three Oklahoma-connected municipal security purchases for himself, according to a disclosure Mullin filed Wednesday with the U.S. Senate.
The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, or STOCK Act, requires a member of Congress to disclose any stock, bond or cryptocurrency trade done by themselves, spouse or dependent child within 45 days.
Mullin’s Senate office acknowledged the senator’s tardy disclosures.
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“Much like tax returns, financial disclosures occasionally need to be amended to reflect the most accurate, up-to-date information. That’s what we did here,” said a Mullin spokesperson, who refused to be identified by name.
Mullin uses “an independent, third-party operator firm that manages all stock portfolio investments on his behalf. He does not conduct nor inform trades. This independent firm reports bi-weekly with Senate Ethics to ensure compliance with federal law,” the spokesperson added.
The spokesperson did not answer questions about whether Mullin has paid a fine — $200 is the standard penalty — or been in contact with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, which primarily oversees STOCK Act enforcement.
Mullin’s disclosures come the same week President Donald Trump vaulted politicians’ stock-trading habits into national headlines. Trump on Thursday lambasted Republican Sen. Josh Hawley as a “second-tier” senator for joining Democrats in advancing a stock-ban bill out of a committee.
Trump has oscillated between supporting and opposing congressional stock-ban measures while insisting the president should be exempt from any such law.
Lawmakers have introduced several bills this session — some bipartisan — that aim to ban or limit congressional stock trading.
Numerous members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, have found themselves crosswise with the STOCK Act for failing to abide by its transparency rules.
Among them: Republican Reps. Neal Dunn, Scott Franklin, Brandon Gill and Tim Moore and Democratic Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Dwight Evans, Jamie Raskin and Chellie Pingree.
Several other members of Congress made large personal stock trades immediately before and after President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff declaration on April 2, which temporarily sent financial markets reeling, before rebounding. Those trades were disclosed but the timing raised questions around how lawmakers sell and purchase stock.
Some members of Congress have recently gone the opposite direction: Democratic Reps. Greg Landsman and George Whitesides have this year said they’re quitting trading individual stocks to avoid conflicts of interest, be them real or perceived.
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This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS and Oklahoma Watch.
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