In our spotlight on business report tonight, Congressman Tom Kaine has come under fire for ethics and transparency surrounding his stock trades.

The second term Republican is facing scrutiny for quietly walking back a high profile campaign pledge to place his personal assets into a blind trust.

Kaine made the issue a centerpiece of the hotly contested race where he ousted then Democratic Congressman Tom Malinowski over stock trades Malinowski failed to disclose.

But according to new reporting by NJ advanced media's Riley Yates, Kaine now says restrictive rules by the house ethics committee made it impossible to follow through.

Riley Yates joins us now to help break down the political implications.

Riley, let's start with this promise that Congressman Kaine made in 2022 that he would move his assets into a blind trust.

What's the official explanation from his camp as to why it hasn't happened?

Well, so as you probably know, and just to give your viewers a little bit of a tutorial, a blind trust is set up to separate a public official from their investment.

So they don't know where their money's going, where their money's going.

And the idea behind that is that it protects them from conflicts of interest when they vote.

So if they knew if they had money in gas interests, they know not to, you know, they can't vote their pocketbook.

And it also prevents them from using insider trading.

So you know, you know, something's going to happen and you invest in a company to make money on that.

And so Congressman Kaine had vowed to take his, put his money in a blind trust in that way.

He said that the rules that the ethics committee had enacted were too cumbersome and that it prevented him from doing sort of common sense investment ideas that he wanted.

And specifically what he wanted to do is he wanted to make sure that his money didn't go toward foreign adversaries.

So he didn't want to invest in, say, like Chinese companies.

And also he wanted to make sure that he didn't, his investments didn't short sell American businesses, which is an investment strategy where you kind of bet that a business is going to perform poorly.

So he didn't want to be betting against American companies.

So it sounds like a fair argument.

And yet, as you report, he's worth about at least $12 million.

A lot of that, of course, it appears anyway, from family trusts that had been set up.

Of course, he's from a political dynasty.

But he made about $270,000 from those investments, which is more than his congressional salary.

But I guess, how does that argument stack up?

And are these the types of earnings that you make when you're someone who has $12 million that's being invested?

Well, certainly his critics don't accuse him of flip-flopping on this issue and promising one thing when he was running for election and delivering something else.

You know, it should be noted that when he was elected in 2022, it was in a pretty bitter race against a Democratic incumbent, Tom Malinowski, who had been dogged by accusations that he'd failed to timely disclose stock trades.

And so Tom Malinowski ultimately did establish a blind trust.

And I talked to him for this story that I did.

And he said, yes, it can be hard to do, but I was able to do it.

And he said it was very expensive for me to do it.

I lost between 15 and 20 percent of my assets when I did that.

And also, potentially, the seat, right?

I mean, it was a big factor.

It's a battleground race.

Let me ask you, there are, though, other Congress members, Josh Gottheimer, Mikie Sherrill, who's running for governor, who's faced scrutiny over the same issue.

Josh Gottheimer, for example, has said, yeah, these rules are really onerous and it's a real hit to follow through with this.

Could these same issues, dog cane all the way through this next campaign cycle in 2026, are we likely to see this come up again?

Oh, I would certainly imagine it.

This seems to be a very popular line of attack right now.

And this is a very important district, the 7th District in New Jersey, which is what Congressman Kaine represents, is considered to be the one swing district in New Jersey.

And there's eight seats right now that separate Republicans and Democrats for control of Congress.

And so Democrats are very eager to try to pick up a seat wherever they can.

And so this will definitely be a battleground.

We should note the argument from Kaine's lawyer is that he's divorced from his investments and he doesn't have any decision-making in that.

How do you think that will fall with voters who, as you point out, these are issues that have really been put in the spotlight?

Yeah.

And, you know, you just don't know.

I spoke with one expert who said, well, you know, there's an argument that Kaine is doing the best he can, and ultimately voters are going to have to decide that.

You know, it probably depends on where you fall on the partisan landscape.

All right.

Riley Yates with NJ Advance Media.

Great reporting.

Thanks so much for coming on the show.

Thanks so much for having me.

Support for The Business Report is provided by the Newark Alliance Presents the 2025 Halsey Fest, featuring the vibrancy of Newark's Arts and Education District and Halsey Street.

Halsey, a neighborhood built on hustle and heart.

The 2025 Halsey Fest schedule is available at HalseyNWK.com.