Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., disclosed this week that his wife, Kelley, invested money early last year in Gilead Sciences, Inc., which produces remdesivir, an antiviral drug that has been used as a treatment for COVID-19.
Paul’s official disclosure of the stock buy was made about 16 months later than the 45-day deadline legally required by a federal law known as the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge, or STOCK, Act.
Senate records say Kelley Paul invested between $1,001 and $15,000 in Gilead Sciences on Feb. 26, 2020.
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Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir has gotten U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorization to be used to treat COVID-19, although in fall 2020 the World Health Organization recommended against using it for hospitalized COVID-19 patients “as there is currently no evidence that remdesivir improves survival and other outcomes in these patients.”
Kelsey Cooper, Paul’s spokeswoman, said in a statement that Kentucky’s Republican senator filled out a form to report his wife’s stock buy last year but recently found out that document hadn’t actually been transmitted.
Cooper said that discovery prompted the report he filed Wednesday. Additionally, she said Kelley Paul lost money on the stock she bought in Gilead Sciences. (Gilead shares were valued at $74.70 apiece at close of trade the day she made the purchase and were priced at $69.84 on Wednesday, per publicly available data.)
“Last year Dr. Paul completed the reporting form for an investment made by his wife using her own earnings, an investment which she has lost money on,” Cooper said. “This was done in the appropriate reporting time window.
“In the process of preparing to file his annual financial disclosure for last year, he learned that the form was not transmitted and promptly alerted the filing office and requested their guidance,” she continued. “In accordance with that guidance he filed both reports today.”
Cooper added: “Dr. Paul attended no private, public or classified briefings on COVID.”
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Paul has repeatedly flouted public health officials’ recommendations that people wear masks to limit the spread of the coronavirus during the pandemic and has criticized other COVID-19 mitigation strategies.
Just this week, he called for people to “resist” government policies for fighting the virus in a new video even as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations surge in his home state due to the delta variant.
He urged people to ignore the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s masking advice despite plenty of evidence that masks work as well as widespread consensus among medical and public health professionals that they are a useful tool in reducing the virus’ spread.
Paul’s disclosure this week about his wife’s investment isn’t the first time a senator has been scrutinized for stock-market moves during the pandemic.
Early last year, Sens. Richard Burr, Jim Inhofe, Kelly Loeffler and Dianne Feinstein raised eyebrows when disclosures showed they sold a lot of stocks just before the pandemic exploded in the U.S.
Morgan Watkins is The Courier Journal’s chief political reporter. Contact her at mwatkins@courierjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter: @morganwatkins26.