Bloomberg: Biden Campaign Bans Staff From Trading Stocks Without Approval

The Biden campaign is forbidding staff from trading individual stocks without approval from the campaign’s general counsel, according to an email sent by the Democratic nominee’s top lawyer to staff on Monday afternoon.

Joe Biden’s general counsel, Dana Remus, wrote in an email to staff obtained by Bloomberg News that the campaign is updating its employee handbook to “ensure that staff do not even inadvertently trade on nonpublic information.” The rule says staff cannot trade stocks “without advance written approval of the General Counsel,” and it will remain in effect until Dec. 14, 2020, the date the Electoral College votes.

A stock trading ban is unusual for presidential campaigns, and experts say Biden is likely the first major candidate to institute such a policy. Hillary Clinton, the last Democratic nominee, did not have a similar policy in place, and Donald Trump’s campaign has not announced a similar policy. The president’s campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment. …

Ethics experts said they could not point to any other political candidate who has barred staff from making individual stock trades and that the policy marks a dramatic contrast to the Trump administration, which has been criticized for flouting ethics rules.

“Usually we see a winning president begin to impose ethical restrictions during a transition, but I think this is unprecedented,” said Paul S. Ryan, the vice president for policy and litigation at Common Cause, a nonpartisan government watchdog. “The Biden campaign’s policy is a breath of fresh air after more than three years of a Trump administration that has been mired in conflicts of interest.”