According to Fox News reports, United States President Joe Biden’s proposed $2T spending bill could lead to Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker, receiving a sizable financial benefit amid her husband’s investments in Tesla.

On January 24, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi purchased $1.25M in stock from the electric car company Tesla. And on January 25, President Biden signed an executive order requiring all federal vehicles to be electric (EV). As last week, Mr. Biden announced his impressive spending bill, which reserves $174B as subsidies for EVs, charging stations and some similar policies.

According to financial disclosures, Paul Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi’s husband, invested anywhere from $0.5M to $1M in Tesla in Dec. 2020. The electric car manufacturer stands to benefit significantly from Mr. Biden’s infrastructure plan.

Drew Hammill, Nancy Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff, said Fox that the speaker had no previous knowledge of the investment.

Hammill said if we read the disclosure there, we will see that each is marked SP for a spouse under the Owner column. Moreover, the speaker has no involvement or previous knowledge of these transactions.

The transaction report states that Paul Pelosi purchased twenty-five call options, essentially a nonbinding agreement to acquire a stock at a set price by a specific date, of Tesla stock for somewhere between 500000 dollars and one million dollars on Dec. 22.

Moreover, the report notes that Pelosi bought hundred call options, each of Walt Disney stock and Apple stock, along with twenty thousand shares of Alliance Bernstein stock.

Congressional members are permitted to buy and sell stocks, but they aren’t allowed to use the information provided by their positions to make investments.

Factual Assessment

The Associated Press notes that although Paul Pelosi’s investment was legal, it has drawn scrutiny from criticizers who argue that Congressional members shouldn’t be admitted to trade individual stocks at all.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is possible to play an essential role in shaping the United States’ clean energy policy. The investment means Pelosi could stand to financially advantage from the success of one electric vehicle company, Tesla.

A spokesperson for Pelosi didn’t respond to the AP’s request for a statement.

Partly false. According to financial disclosure documents, Paul Pelosi indeed invested up to $1M in call options for Tesla stock in December. But claims that the representative bought $1.25M in shares a day before Joe Biden’s executive order are inaccurate.

A viral meme wrongly accusing Pelosi of investing millions in the company the day before U.S. President signed an executive order on EV circulated widely on Monday on Facebook with millions of views and over 0.275M shares.