Rep. Ted Lieu Accuses Donald Trump Of Stock Market Fraud And Insider Trading

While Donald Trump was accused of two high crimes and misdemeanors during his impeachment trial, it looks like there’s another illegal act the president may have committed.

Specifically, Trump is suspected of manipulating futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange by making statements that allowed investors to turn billions of dollars in profits, some of which may have directly benefited Trump and members of his family, according to a blockbuster report from Vanity Fair:

“In the last 10 minutes of trading at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Friday, September 13, someone got very lucky. That’s when he or she, or a group of people, sold short 120,000 “S&P e-minis”—electronically traded futures contracts linked to the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index—when the index was trading around 3010. The time was 3:50 p.m. in New York; it was nearing midnight in Tehran. A few hours later, drones attacked a large swath of Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure, choking off production in the country and sending oil prices soaring. By the time the CME next opened, for pretrading on Sunday night, the S&P index had fallen 30 points, giving that very fortunate trader, or traders, a quick $180 million profit.”


As it turns out, that wasn’t an isolated incident. Another one happened just three days earlier, on September 10:

“In the last 10 minutes of trading, someone bought 82,000 S&P e-minis when the index was trading at 2969. That was nearly 4 a.m. on September 11 in Beijing, where a few hours later, the Chinese government announced that it would lift tariffs on a range of American-made products. As has been the typical reaction in the U.S. stock markets as the trade war with China chugs on without any perceptible logic, when the news about a potential resolution of it seems positive, stock markets go up, and when the news about the trade war appears negative, they go down.”


These and other suspicious market moves tied to statements from Trump are now under the microscope thanks to two Democrats in the House, Reps. Ted Lieu (CA) and Kathleen Rice (NY), who have written letters to multiple federal agencies, Common Dreams reports:

“(Lieu and Rice wrote) the FBI, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, requested a probe into ‘potentially unlawful behavior related to the trading of electronically traded futures contracts on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in the last several months.'”

Regulators can find out exactly who has made the trades that were tied to remarks from the president, and they can also determine exactly how much those traders made off their transactions. If any of those were made by individuals tied to Trump, that would be evidence of fraud.


An anonymous trader said something fishy is indeed happening:

“One longtime CME trader who has been watching with disgust says he’s never seen anything quite like these trades, not at least since al-Qaida cashed in before initiating the September 11 attacks. ‘There is definite hanky-panky going on, to the world’s financial markets’ detriment,’ he says. ‘This is abysmal.'”

Perhaps the only question that remains when it comes to Donald Trump is this one: Is there any crime he hasn’t committed?

15 thoughts on “Rep. Ted Lieu Accuses Donald Trump Of Stock Market Fraud And Insider Trading

  1. Nothing about this Trump criminal enterprise behind the White House walls does not surprise me at all. When a group of leaders can allow what has happened to children and families seeking safe haven to the dismal betrayal of Allies this gangster pack will leave nothing free of their tainted hands. They will be fighting tooth and nail to keep the lid on but -too many thieves- too many secrets -too many lies Truth will out!

    • Your first sentence implies that everything about the Trump administration surprises you. I’m sure this is not your intention. It only needs a quick edit.

      • Rory Fellowes thanks for the comment As you guessed I am often so overcome with disgust at the trump administration that I do not pause for breath. That does not mean trump leaves me breathless.! This outfit of corruption is so disturbing. The disgusting behavior reprehensible. Having such a huge impact on most things I hold sacred. Especially the law and the rights of my fellow Humanity. Getting that desperate feeling about how much longer this rogue and his creatures will be in control. Awful to think of what has not yet been uncovered and the length of time it is taking to prevent him from opening that gaping and very ugly mouth of his attacking on a daily basis, More scandals from him then the rest of the swamp creatures. What does really surprise me is Trump is still along with the rest of them able too continue with the destruction Without any diplomatic course. Now look where we are. Facing another possible War. Rather the people had a bit more power to remove a virus like this than all this Maybe Perhaps If Could, wait and see. He is a danger and so is the rest of that crew that surround him. Frustrated and sick of him in my head, what he has been allowed to do and say. whoops looks like I need a cuppa tea. cheers.

  2. The only defense that trump did not engage in stock fraud would be that he is too stupid to know how. But others he listens to are capable of having him make statements to do this.

    • He’s not stupid. He’d like you to think he’s too stupid to have mal- intent and pull it off. Not stupid – greedy, avaricious, indecent, amoral, vindictive, small, yes.

  3. There’s a great line in the great movie, “Training Day:”

    “It’s not what you know; it’s what you can prove.”

    Fortunately, the Trump Crime Family have proven massively incompetent at everything they’ve done so far…
    (Imagine the several orders of magnitude greater harm they could have done had they actually had any aptitude!)
    So maybe they will actually get their fingers caught in the cookie jar this time.
    Then we’ll get the additional benefit of watching the MAGAts defending insider trading as perfectly legal and moral…
    as long as it’s a Thuglican doing it.

    • defending insider trading as perfectly legal and moral…

      Remind me of the only people not subject to insider trading laws.
      (Hint- It starts with a C and ends in ongresspersons).

      I wonder who passed those laws?

      • I am unable to agree with insider trading as legal and moral in any sense. Who benefits? Certainly not the little fish only the fat cats in the know. It must be addressed and those that enjoy ruining the little fish get Eaten by the Legal Eagles. If there are still any honest ones still around Trump and his gang are thugs in office of power. Has a mind set of taking and doing what he wants and he must be answerable to his actions like any one of us on this planet of the apes.

      • STOCK Act. The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act (Pub. … The bill prohibits the use of non-public information for private profit, including insider trading by members of Congress and other government employees.

  4. I assumed this right off the bat, a corrupt crooked conman with the power to manipulate the markets…up or down? Dah… I would be surprised if he didn’t do this…

    • I agree wholeheartedly!!
      I’m not a professional trader or a person of great wealth however, I’m smart enough to see what’s going on with the market, ups and downs.

  5. We need to be careful about this. The Sep 13 trade is highly unlikely to be connected to Trump, because that attack was Iranian, and if we knew In September that the Iranians were gonna attack before they did, I’d say we would have a much better handle on what was going on in Iraq lately, and we didn’t. We were caught flat footed by the attack on the Embassy for sure. Then again, the military knew where Soleimani was to take him out, but that is much easier intelligence than notice of a planned secret attack. A more likely answer is that it was an account with ties to the Iranian regime. Where things get interesting is if it’s connected to a country with favorable ties to Iran.

    The Sep 10 trade Is definitely suspicious. The China announcement was the result of negotiations that involved certain people in the administration, so there were some who knew when that would happen. That one is a no-brainer to investigate. And that is good, because brains are in short supply in this administration.

    • I agree. But who knows what the orange abomination knew or was told. I have no doubt he blabs all the time to rich so-called friends at his golf courses, to make himself look like a big shot. Some of the people listening may be smart enough to figure out how to make money off if what they hear.

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