Probing Contradictions In 'Freedom Caucus' Chair's Financial Disclosure
Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), who chairs the far-right House Freedom Caucus, is competing in a tough primary race against a Republican state senator endorsed by former President Donald Trump. And now he's facing additional scrutiny over financial disclosure reports that are raising more questions than they're answering.
According to a Friday report in NOTUS, the Virginia Republican has been cagey in his answers about what he did with his significant amounts of money invested in various stocks and mutual funds. The publication reported that previously, Good had anywhere between $200,000 and $1.7 million (financial disclosure forms only require a range, not an exact number) in roughly 100 different stocks and mutual funds. But in his most recently available financial disclosure forms, all that he has listed is an IRA and a Roth IRA, with anywhere between $275,000 and $550,000 entirely held in cash.
In a statement, Good said that he transitioned his investments to a single mutual fund for simplicity's sake.
"Before being sworn into office, I moved my assets to a mutual fund which does not require reporting of individual stock trades," he stated. "Not only is this less cumbersome for financial reports, but it also avoids any appearance of impropriety of trading stocks based on insider information."
However, NOTUS' Katherine Swartz noted that Good's net worth remains "mysterious," and that his explanation "contradicts multiple years of financial disclosures, which only show two retirement funds held in cash." She also wrote that he ended up contracting himself in a separate follow-up statement that omitted any mention of a mutual fund.
"Before being sworn into office, I moved my assets to avoid any appearance of impropriety with stock trades," the congressman stated on Thursday. "I have submitted my required financial disclosure reports for 2021 and 2022, and to the best of my knowledge am in full compliance with the reporting requirements."
In the period between January of 2018 and December of 2019, Good had an 11-page filing showing all of his stocks valued between $1 and $1,000, $1,000 and $15,000 and a mutual fund $15,00 and $50,000. And since then, he hasn't publicly disclosed the sale of any stocks, despite his 2022 filing — which is the most recently available — showing just the two IRAs.
Jodan Libowitz, who is a spokesperson for the anti-corruption watchdog group Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told NOTUS that Good's explanation effectively posits two separate realities.
"“He has to tell you what the mutual fund is. But if what he says on his filing is true, there are no mutual funds,” Libowitz said. “So his office is telling you, ‘he moved it all into mutual funds.’ And he’s saying, ‘I didn’t, I got rid of everything from mutual funds.’ These two things cannot both be true."
Good is battling for his political life in Tuesday's primary, in which Virginians will choose whether they want Good on the general election ballot or Republican state senator John McGuire. Trump has endorsed McGuire, and is even participating in a virtual town hall for McGuire on Monday, right before Republicans in the Old Dominion State cast their ballots.
The embattled Freedom Caucus chairman's rift with Trump stems from his early endorsement of Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis in the 2024 presidential primary, before DeSantis even officially declared his candidacy. Good has since endorsed Trump, and even traveled to Manhattan to praise him outside of the courthouse where he stood trial, but Trump has still not relented in his attacks on the congressman. In fact, Trump attacked him on his Truth Social platform just last month.
""Bob Good is BAD FOR VIRGINIA, AND BAD FOR THE USA,” Trump wrote. “He turned his back on our incredible movement, and was constantly attacking and fighting me until recently, when he gave a warm and ‘loving’ Endorsement – But really, it was too late. The damage had been done!”
Reprinted with permission from Alternet.
