Sept. 20 · Corruption
Update: The Bill That Lets You Sue Politicians for Insider Trading Just Went Out to Every Democratic State Legislator in America
Successfully emailed to all 3,502 state legislators along with the 24 Democratic governors, and mailed in print with a personal letter to 1,519 legislators and every governor. Meetings are next.
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Thanks to this community, we were able to send the Make Corrupt Politicians Pay Act to every Democratic state legislator in the United States, all 3,502 of them, and to all 24 Democratic governors. Every one of them got it by email, and 1,519 legislators and the governors also received the model legislation in the mail as a printed copy with a personal letter. Replies have started coming in, and we’re in the process of setting up those first meetings.
The Act covers one kind of corruption: an official trading stock on nonpublic government information, or passing that information to someone who trades on it. You know, the exact insider trading and market manipulation Trump and his cabal commit in public, daily. This bill makes it so you can sue any public officeholder for that conduct while also opening that officeholder up to serious criminal prosecution.
In case you weren’t aware, the federal Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (STOCK Act) doesn’t give anyone the right to sue over a trade like that, and the only penalty written into it is a $200 fee for filing a trade report late.
Under the Make Corrupt Politicians Pay Act, investors on the other side of the trade can sue the official for three times their loss, and any investor in the company can force the official to hand over the profit to a state fund for victims. To reiterate, this legislation means the state can prosecute these crooks, and it doesn’t matter which office the official holds.
If for example the Director of the FBI was to be pulled over while driving under the influence, even while on duty, they’d be subject to your state’s criminal code. The Supremacy Clause protects an official’s lawful duties, and a DUI is not one of them. Insider trading is not one of them either.
The same principle applies to unlawful market manipulation.
Every section and clause of this model legislation is built on existing, legally sound, and long-standing laws in the United States. That’s how you build robust legislation.
You can read the full text of the Act here.
Here’s an important acknowledgement. A mailed packet can be sorted and shelved by staff without the legislator seeing it, and an email can sit unopened in an inbox that gets hundreds a day. Sending the Act was only the first step, so we’re following up with every office: I’ll be meeting with legislators by Zoom and writing the documents our team distributes, while Troy and the team make the calls and send the emails, learning as they go which staffer in each office handles the bill. The goal is to talk with someone in every one of those offices about sponsoring it.
As offices respond, we’re tailoring the Act to each state’s laws. A bill drafted for one legislature has to be rewritten for another before it can be sponsored and brought to a vote, which takes months. We want the Act introduced and voted on in legislatures across the country, and we expect that to take at least a year.
These are the kind of laws that let states restore law and order even as the federal government falls deeper into corruption and autocracy.
No elections needed.
As the federal government gets dismantled and sold for parts, it weakens.
That means now is the time to build for accountability and prepare to gain strength as the regime grows more unstable and more reckless in their attempts to hold power.
Thank you to everyone in this community for making this happen. Every day I feel so much enthusiasm and optimism that we are building something incredible. Thank you for being here, and please take a beat to pat yourself on the back for caring and being an activist and showing up. Did you take a second to tell yourself you’re doing good, caring about the world and fighting to make it a better place?
Great, now let’s get after it.
- Chris
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CALL TO ACTION
The Make Corrupt Politicians Pay Act lets investors sue a politician who trades stock on nonpublic government information. The Existentialist Republic sent it to every Democratic state legislator in the country in September, by mail or by email. Now the rest of us make sure they read it.
Enter your address at OpenStates to find your state representative and your state senator, with their email addresses, phone numbers, and mailing address.
Contact at least one of them. If you’ve previously reached out and received no response, try a different method this time. If they’ve ignored each method, try another office. Ask whether their office received the Make Corrupt Politicians Pay Act from The Existentialist Republic, and tell them you’re a constituent and you want them to sponsor it. Include the link to the Act so the office has the text.
Tell someone what you did.
Put the message in your own words, because identical messages often don’t get taken seriously. Tell them who you are and why you care first, then what you’re asking for.
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