By The Daily Wire (World News) | Created at 2026-10-02 16:20:56 | Updated at 2026-10-02 17:49:24
6 hours ago
Late last month, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) voted against advancing Chris Klomp’s nomination for deputy secretary of Health and Human Services, accusing him of “manipulating his tax payments.” But a Daily Wire review of the Oregon Democrat’s record suggests he may want to think twice before casting stones.
Wyden has repeatedly called for a ban on congressional stock trading despite his household generating some of Congress’s largest returns. Stock transactions reported under Wyden’s name totaled nearly $350,000 in 2025. During the coronavirus pandemic, it was $9.1 million.
His wife’s investments raise further questions. In August, Wyden disclosed a six-figure stock transaction involving his wife, Nancy Bass Wyden’s, holdings. The disclosure was 465 days late. A spokesman for Wyden told The Washington Sun that the senator “is not going to ask his wife to upend her small business before there’s a clear set of rules for everyone.”
There is, of course, a clear set of rules for everyone — rules that Wyden himself actually voted to approve in 2012. The STOCK Act requires members of Congress to disclose stock trades exceeding $1,000 made by themselves, their spouses, or their dependent children within 45 days of the transaction.
In the past, Nancy’s investments have overlapped with industries Wyden oversees. While her husband sat on committees overseeing energy policy, Nancy bought and sold shares of ExxonMobil and Shell. While he championed the CHIPS Act, she purchased at least $245,000 in Nvidia stock. And while he defended Section 230 protections for Big Tech, she held as much as $3 million in Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google stock.
Wyden’s wife has also come under scrutiny for money she collected from the government during the COVID-19 pandemic. She received $2.7 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans between 2020 and 2021 to shore up the Strand, a famous New York City bookstore, which she owns. PPP loans were given to small businesses to help them make payroll while the lockdown kept customers from visiting their stores.
Weeks before the Strand received its first PPP loan — on an application listing 212 jobs — Nancy laid off roughly 180 employees. Few were rehired, and in July 2020 the store laid off a dozen of the workers it had brought back.
“Every loan that provides a windfall for an applicant who does not truly need it results in one fewer loan made to a struggling small business owner whose employees could be truly helped by this funding,” Ron Wyden wrote at the time, castigating people who, like his wife, did not use PPP loans for their intended purpose.
Around that time, Nancy purchased at least $115,000 in Amazon stock. She had previously called the retail giant a “huge disruptor” of independent bookstores, but justified her purchase, saying the investment helped her personal stock portfolio, which she used to keep her bookstore from closing.
Nor is Nancy the only member of the Wyden family causing trouble for the senator. Ron Wyden’s son, Adam, once petitioned Jeffrey Epstein to fund his hedge fund. That fund is still operational, and its largest investment is in a strip club called Rick’s Cabaret.
In January, Wyden expanded his Epstein investigation, saying, “I’m into year four of this follow-the-money investigation, and among my core takeaways is that there is a pervasive culture of lawlessness on Wall Street as these banks turn a blind eye to the criminal activities of billionaires like Jeffrey Epstein.” However, the senator’s four-year investigation stopped short of his household, with Wyden telling Fox News Digital he learned only last year on social media that his own son met with Epstein.
Documents released by the Justice Department revealed Adam met Epstein at the late pedophile’s New York townhouse in 2016.
“Jeffrey, I wanted to thank you for taking the time to meet with me,” Adam wrote to Epstein after their meeting. “I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and hope my passion and dedication for my business came through in the meeting.”
Wyden has said he does not discuss his children’s business activities. But Adam Wyden’s business dealings entered the congressional record this summer during Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s testimony in front of the Senate Finance Committee on his 2027 budget request.
“Let’s be clear here,” said Wyden. “Nobody is interested in the ramblings of a capo in the most corrupt regime in American history.”
Without missing a beat, Bessent fired back, “We’d like to hear what Adam Wyden and Jeffrey Epstein talked about. Your son’s largest investment position was Rick’s Cabaret. So, did your son and Jeffrey Epstein talk about pole dancing as he begged him for money using your limited credibility?”
Honoring his commitment to not discuss his children’s financial activities, Wyden did not respond to The Daily Wire’s request for comment.
