Nancy Pelosi, the current speaker of the United States House of Representatives, rarely saw eye to eye with former US President Donald Trump. According to a new book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa titled Peril, Pelosi called Joint Chief’s Chairman Mark Milley asking for President Trump’s arrest following the ill-fated Capitol insurrection.
“He should have been arrested on the spot,” Nancy Pelosi reportedly told Mark. The fire-brand politician has sat in the US House of Representatives since 1987.
She’s maintained a low-key marriage to secretive businessman Paul Pelosi since 1963.
Paul and Nancy welcomed five children in six years
Paul Pelosi was born in 1940, and he grew up in San Francisco. He headed out to Georgetown University to study Foreign Service, and it was during his time there that he met Nancy. At the time, Nancy studied at Trinity College in Washington D.C. Paul and Nancy got married in 1963, and they lived in New York up to 1969 as Paul completed his studies at New York University.
Nancy had her first child in 1964, and by the end of 1960, the couple had five children. Nancy Corrine, Christine, Jacqueline, Paul, and Alexandra were born within six years. Raising five children at the same time was a struggle, but Paul and Nancy managed to do it successfully. Paul and Nancy currently have nine grandchildren.
His actions in the stock market have led to insider trading accusations against Nancy Pelosi
In July 2021, Paul made a $5.3 million profit on Alphabet shares. Pelosi’s windfall came a week before the House Judiciary Committee voted to push forward with the Ending Platform Monopolies Act.
The act is supposed to regulate the powers of big-tech companies. Paul Pelosi dutifully submitted a financial disclosure signed by Nancy Pelosi stating that he made $4.8 million from Alphabet shares that had since risen to $5.3 million.
Paul also stated that he’d purchased call options for NVIDIA, Amazon, and Apple but hadn’t exercised them. “The speaker has no involvement or prior knowledge of these transaction,” Nancy Pelosi’s spokesperson said via email.
The spokesperson added that Pelosi doesn’t own stock. In September 2021, Paul made $700K from 5,000 CrowdStrike shares he’d purchased a year prior.
A spokesperson for Nancy stated that she’d never met with CrowdStrike officials in her official capacity. Per the STOCK Act, Paul’s dealings are legal as long as he acts on public information and discloses all asset purchases and sales.
So far, Nancy Pelosi hasn’t been found guilty of aiding his husband’s trading by providing him with nonpublic information. However, Twitter has been much less forgiving.
‘Nancy Pelosi Insider Trading’ has trended on the platform, with some users calling for her resignation or removal.
It’s not unusual for politicians to get away with questionable business dealings. For example, former senator Kelly Loeffler sold $3.1 million in stock after receiving private briefings about the coronavirus pandemic in January 2020.
Paul has no interest in sharing the limelight with his wife
When Nancy joined Congress in 1987, she told The Chronicle that she had a healthy relationship with Paul because she didn’t ask him to put much effort into her political career. In 2004, Paul echoed Nancy’s statements when he told The Chronicle:
“I’ve made a conscious effort to not be involved or give the appearance of being involved in her political career. People should realize that she is the one.”
Paul helped with fundraising and accompanying Nancy to events, but he mostly preferred to keep away from the limelight. Being a businessman and an investor, he knew that his business deals could be used to tarnish Nancy’s name. The couple thus decided to have separate careers.
It, therefore, came as a surprise when Paul paid $12 million for the now-defunct Sacramento Mountain Lions football team. The move put Paul firmly in the headlines as he and other investors tried to create a football league that would rival the NFL. Paul stated that he didn’t consult Nancy before making the buy, but he insisted that it wouldn’t affect her political career. He told The Los Angeles Times:
“Back in the day when she first went into government and I was in real estate, I never did anything with resolution trust – there were tremendous opportunities there to go buy things and make a lot of dough. I never did because I thought if I did and I made dough that there would be something they would obviously criticize her for. So I’ve religiously steered away from anything that would look controversial to her position.”
The business move didn’t affect Nancy’s political career, but it turned out to be a lousy investment for Paul. The rival football league that Paul and other investors tried to create folded due to financial problems in 2012.