Reid aide stock trade spotlighted

At least 72 House and Senate aides have traded stocks in companies their bosses helped oversee,  according to a Wall Street Journal analysis this morning that focused in part on a top adviser to Sen. Harry Reid.

Chris Miller almost doubled a $3,500 investment in a Michigan renewable energy firm over nine months in 2008, the newspaper reported from its analysis of 2008 and 2009 congressional disclosures. Miller is the Senate majority leader's senior adviser on energy and environment policy.

Miller's trading activity -- buying stock in Energy Conversion Devices in January and selling in May and September --  came around the time the Senate was considering extending, and finally did pass, a 30 percent investment tax credit for solar energy companies, the paper reported. 

Miller, 47, told the newspaper it had "cherry picked information and woven a misleading narrative. It's pretty straightforward: I bought on a dip and sold on spikes, none of which had anything to do with my job."

Reid's office initially defended the aide, saying Miller did not work on the tax credits and that they had broad bipartisan support and were widely expected to pass.

Later, Reid spokesman Jim Manley issued a statement to the newspaper saying, "Mr. Miller showed poor judgment and Senator Reid has made it very clear to Chris and all his staff that their actions must not only follow the law, but must meet the higher standards the public has a right to expect from elected officials and their staffs."

Manley this morning said Miller, as all staffers, has attended mandatory ethics training as required by reforms Congress passed in 2007. He said he did not know if stock trading would have been covered.

Manley would not say whether Miller might face any repercussions, declining to comment on personnel matters. He said Miller was not commenting further.

In a further response this morning, Reid's office said there was no great mystery surrounding Energy Conversion Devices. It said analysts were recommending buys on the company stock early in 2008, and that analysts including Jim Cramer on CNBC recommended a sell-off in May.

The investment tax credit was not particularly important to the company's prospects, according to the firm's discussions with analysts cited by Reid's office.

The Reid office response is attached here, with the rebuttal in bold type.

The Wall Street Journal spotlighted examples of stock trading by staff members to both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, including an aide to Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., an aide to Sen. Mike Crapo,  R-Idaho, an assistant to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
   
The staff members said they did not profit from information they might have gleaned from working close to influential lawmakers.

"Even if they had done so, it would be legal, because inside trading laws don't apply to Congress," the Journal said. A bill that would prevent members of Congress and their staffs from trading stocks based on nonpublic information has gone nowhere since 2006.