Washington reporter Brian Slodysko investigated the stock trading of U.S. Rep. Tom Malinowski, adding the New Jersey Democrat to the members of Congress who have come under scrutiny for their trades during the COVID-19 era. Detailing an extensive trading history that one former ethics official described as mind-boggling, Slodysko peeled back the curtain on the congressman’s trading activity and his failure to disclose it to the public.
Getting the story wasn’t easy. To report it, Slodysko used software to harvest data from a list of trades released by Malinowski’s office. That enabled him to analyze just how active Malinowski had been in the stock market since the pandemic hit. Combining that with other stock price data, Slodysko was able to state that Malinowski — who early in the pandemic had admonished those looking to capitalize on the health crisis — bought or sold as much as $1 million of stock in medical and tech companies that had a stake in the virus response.
AP’s story broke new ground in an important area of accountability reporting in Washington, and was quickly picked up by other outlets, including The Washington Post, Politico and The Hill, among others.