“The Clock is Ticking” on Mike Garcia’s Ethics Violations, Stock Trade Scandal

Amidst an investigations request filed by End Citizens United late last week, elections analyst David Wasserman highlighted Garcia’s stock trades — in addition to his support for MAGA Speaker Johnson and his objection to certifying the 2020 election — as factors that “separate Garcia from the median voter in his district.”

DCCC Spokesperson Dan Gottlieb:
“Mike Garcia may be looking to bury this scandal in the same manner he buried stock ethics violations by filing after the date — but unfortunately for his reelection ambitions, this isn’t going anywhere. When will Garcia stop hiding behind his staffers and address the public’s burning questions?”

Spectrum News: Garcia accused of ethics violations: What comes next?
Cassie Semyon | December 18, 2023

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• A political action group filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics against Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., and now the clock is ticking.

• Spectrum News first reported Friday that End Citizens United filed a request to have Garcia investigated for alleged violations of the Ethics in Government Act. Earlier that week, the Daily Beast reported that Garcia sold up to $50,000 in shares of Boeing weeks before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure released a 2020 report investigating the deadly crashes involving Boeing’s 737 Max airliner. Garcia served on that committee at the time.

• The OCE, which was created in March 2008, is a nonpartisan office made up of private citizens. Two board members, one appointed by the Speaker of the House and the Minority leader respectively, can authorize a preliminary review following receipt of the complaint. If the office decides to take up a preliminary inquiry into ECU’s allegations against Garcia, only the congressman will be notified.

• “People want to know more information about what the congressman knew, what potential information he may have had access to, and did that information inform his decision to make this trade,” said Casey Burgat, a professor at George Washington University. “That’s a reasonable question to ask.”

• End Citizens United argues that Garcia acted within his own self-interest, calling it “a slap in the face to families in his district who trusted him to fight for their needs, not to safeguard his stock portfolio.”

• “For years, Congressman Garcia has engaged in a consistent and disturbing pattern of violating the law to conceal his financial interests from his constituents. We urge the Office of Congressional Ethics to immediately launch an investigation into Congressman Garcia’s actions and hold him accountable for this egregious abuse of power,” said Tiffany Muller, President of End Citizens United.

• Garcia has not been charged with any crimes. But Burgat says even the suggestion of dishonesty could injure his campaign for re-election. Garcia won his seat in November 2020 by just 333 votes over Democrat Christy Smith. He won by a wider margin in 2022, but it’s a district President Joe Biden carried in 2020, making it a critical district both parties have their eyes on.

• “I wouldn’t want to be Mike Garcia, in this instance,” Burgat said, noting that the Congressman has no margin for error in his district. “This is just one of those instances where left, right, or center, people frustrated at the institution of politics — frustrated with politicians — they’re going to take it out on the incumbent. And they’re definitely going to take it out on the incumbent who has a name connected to that wrongdoing.”

KQED: Election 2024: Why California is Key to Control of Congress
Scott Shafer | December 18, 2023

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• KQED Host Scott Shafer: Mike Garcia, the incumbent down there in the LA area. His district is a little more conservative, the northeastern part of LA — Lancaster, Santa Clarita, and Palmdale. He defeated Christy Smith who was the Democratic nominee three times. She is no longer running.

• We’ve got this guy George Whitesides, who might be a better fit for the district. He worked for NASA. He’s, according to his website, an aerospace entrepreneur.

• What are your thoughts about that race?

• David Wasserman: This has always been a fascinating district…and Democrats are excited to have a new candidate in this race. You know, one piece of fallout from McCarthy’s resignation is that Republicans might not benefit as much from the money that he brought in, and that is a major unknown for these Republicans like Garcia who have raised a lot of money on their own, but really benefited from ads by the Congressional Leadership Fund, the NRCC, outside entities that McCarthy had huge influence over.

• Now, George Whitesides has a lot of money that he can spend here and Democrats — the key is whether Democrats can…shift the emphasis to [Garcia’s] voting record, which is really quite conservative for a member from a district that Biden carried by 13 points back in 2020.

• They’re going to be pointing to stock trades, they’re going to be pointing to his support for Johnson, and objection to certifying the 2020 election, his vote for an impeachment inquiry. These are all things that probably separate Garcia from the median voter in this district.

• KQED Host Scott Shafer: You mentioned the stock trades, you’re referring I think to a report that he had traded some Boeing stock right before a negative report came out about Boeing and the plane crashes with their — was it those jumbo planes that went down? Is that what you’re referring to?

• David Wasserman: Right, and Democrats are going after him on that.