By Katy Stech Ferek

WASHINGTON -- Stock purchases made by the wife of Rep. Mike Kelly (R., Pa.) in 2020 raised "serious concerns" from House Ethics Committee investigators, but they said in a report Friday that they didn't find sufficient evidence to show he engaged in violations of insider-trading laws.

In the report, committee officials said Kelly violated the House's code of conduct "by failing to meet his duty of candor" as they investigated his wife's decision to buy stock in a company that operated a local steel plant that was at risk of closing. Releasing the details of the report publicly is meant to serve as reproval for those actions, the report said.

"This investigation has unnecessarily lasted for nearly five years," said Kelly. "My family and I look forward to putting this distraction behind us," he said.

Kelly's wife, Victoria Kelly, bought 5,000 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock for $23,075 on April 29, 2020, the report said. That was the day after her husband was informed by his staff that Trump administration officials decided to take steps to implementing tariffs on imports that could keep the company's two steel plants -- including one in his district -- open.

Kelly's wife later sold all her shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock for $87,551.06 on Jan. 11, 2021, earning her a $64,476.06 profit, the report said, while noting it was a very small part of her investment portfolio. She declined to participate in an interview or to respond to written questions, the report said, citing her cooperation with document requests as well as health concerns.

Shortly before her purchase, Commerce Department officials determined that they would initiate a national security-related investigation under Section 232 related to steel imports. That decision wasn't announced publicly until several days after Kelly's staff informed Kelly about the decision and after his wife made the stock purchases, the report said.

Lawmakers passed a law in 2012 prohibiting trading on insider information and mandating disclosure. Since then, Congress has considered various proposals to ban lawmakers and their families from trading individual stocks, and heavy trading around Trump's rollout of tariffs earlier this year rekindled demands for tighter restrictions.

"The status quo is clearly unacceptable. The only way to fix the problem is for members of Congress to be banned from trading stocks," said Rep. Seth Magaziner (D., R.I.), who is leading negotiations between Democratic and Republican colleagues on new rules.

Back in 2020, a Cleveland-Cliffs-operated plant in Kelly's district was one of two that were at risk of closing unless the Trump administration took steps to intervene, company officials had said. Kelly told other lawmakers that closing the two plants would eliminate 1,500 jobs and urged administration officials to take steps toward implementing tariffs that would protect the U.S. steel industry, the report said.

Ethics investigators said that Cleveland-Cliffs stock purchase was an outlier within Kelly's wife's investment portfolio, marking her first individual stock purchase in nearly a year. Her investment activity consisted mostly of funds and bonds, they said.

Kelly told ethics investigators that his wife "may have overheard his discussions about the matter while he was working from home recovering from COVID," the report said. When asked whether his wife knew the plant was going to stay open at the time she purchased the stock, Kelly responded, "I think she thought the stock was so low priced, it'd be foolish not to...I know that she thought she made a hell of a buy," the report said.

Victoria Kelly couldn't be reached for comment.

When a reporter later asked about the stock purchase, Kelly's office said in a statement that his wife "made a small investment to show her support for the workers and management of this 100-year old bedrock of their hometown."

In the report, the committee said that without the cooperation of Kelly's wife, it was unable to confirm whether she "received nonpublic information from her husband or what her intent was" in purchasing the stock. The committee said that it didn't find sufficient evidence that Kelly "engaged in or facilitated" insider trading. It recommended that the Kellys divest of shares of Cleveland-Cliffs.

Write to Katy Stech Ferek at katy.stech@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 25, 2025 16:25 ET (20:25 GMT)

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