Perdue’s stock market activity also highlights the gulf between him and many of his constituents and millions of other Americans.

As the economy’s recovery comes to a halt and millions of Americans face expiring pandemic benefits with no relief on the horizon, Republican Sen. David Perdue of Georgia is once again fending off accusations that he financially benefited from shady and opportunistic stock trades.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that beginning in 2016, Perdue bought and sold stock in cybersecurity company FireEye, a federal contractor, 61 times. Perdue made nearly half of those transactions while he sat on the Senate’s cybersecurity subcommittee, which oversees companies like FireEye. At one point, Perdue owned as much as $250,000 worth of shares in the company. In 2018, the senator reported capital gains of up to $15,000 from FireEye trades.

While there is no evidence that Perdue used insider knowledge to help inform his trades, his moves have repeatedly raised concerns over potential conflicts of interest. Perdue’s March sale of more than $1 million worth of stock in financial analysis firm Cardlytics even prompted a Department of Justice investigation, though prosecutors ultimately declined to bring charges. 

According to the Times, Perdue made 2,596 stock trades during his six-year term in the Senate—by far the most of any member in the chamber. The senator has rejected the notion that his investments pose a conflict of interest, saying outside advisers made his trades without his input.

“Senator Perdue doesn’t handle the day-to-day decisions of his portfolio — all of his holdings are managed by outside financial advisers who make recommendations, set strategy, and manage trades and personal finances,” John Burke, the communications director for Perdue’s re-election campaign, told the Times.

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Perdue’s stock market activity also highlights the gulf between him and many of his constituents and millions of other Americans. 

According to the Pew Research Center, 52% of American families hold some sort of investments, such as retirement accounts, but only 14% are directly invested in individual stocks. Those who are heavily invested in the market also disproportionately wealthy: As of the second quarter of 2020, the top 1% of US households—a rarefied group which includes Perdue, whose net worth is an estimated $15 million—owned 52% of all stocks and mutual funds, according to data from the Federal Reserve. In contrast, the middle class owned less than 7% of stocks, according to research from Edward Wolff, an NYU professor who has studied stock ownership and inequality.

Middle- and lower-class Americans have been hammered by the pandemic and have pleaded for financial help for months. Meanwhile, the wealthiest Americans had already recovered most of the wealth they lost in the spring when job losses were high and the stock market was suffering. Perdue and fellow Republican Senators have refused to support the House-passed economic stimulus package (the HEROES Act) for more than six months, blocking an additional round of $1,200 stimulus checks and an extension of the $600 weekly federal unemployment benefit which expired at the end of July.

Perdue has instead focused on providing more “targeted” aid, specifically geared toward small businesses.

Democrat Jon Ossoff, who faces Perdue in a runoff election on Jan. 5, has seized on the opportunity to criticize not only his opponent’s questionable trading as a campaign issue but also Perdue’s obstruction of direct coronavirus relief. 

“This is not just about Sen. Perdue’s personal misconduct and his lying about his financial dealings,” Ossoff said at a news conference on Nov. 30. “It’s about the fact that he’s been holding up relief for the very people he serves while enriching himself in office; opposing $1,200 stimulus checks for ordinary, working Georgians; obstructing long-overdue financial relief for Georgians since midsummer that’s been awaiting passage by the US Senate while he’s been looking after himself.”

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The Perdue campaign fired back this week with a new ad calling Ossoff a liar and claiming the senator had been “totally exonerated” from any allegations of wrongdoing. 

Perdue’s ad focused on one specific allegation regarding his purchase of stocks in a company that made personal protective equipment. He made those trades between late January and early March, prompting concerns that he used information received during a Jan. 24 senators-only coronavirus briefing to inform his transactions. The Perdue campaign claims he wasn’t at the briefing, but the ad doesn’t address any of his other trades that have been scrutinized this year, including:

Following the backlash to his trades during the early days of the coronavirus crisis, Perdue ultimately sold off nearly all of his stock holdings, totaling between $3.2 million and $9.4 million in April. The next month, he announced that his financial advisers would halt trading in individual stocks for his portfolio, except for a few companies on whose boards he previously served, including Cardlytics.