Watchdog Files Ethics Complaint Against Mike Pence Aide Over COVID Investments [UPDATE]

UPDATE: Sept. 23 — Marc Short filed his financial disclosure form before leaving his position as Pence’s chief of staff. The below story as originally published said that it appeared he had not done so, but instead it appears the Office of Government Ethics was slow to post the filing online.

PREVIOUSLY:

A government watchdog organization has filed an ethics complaint against former Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff over COVID-linked business investments.

Marc Short appears to have failed to file a financial disclosure report when he left office as required by law, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington wrote in a letter Thursday to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.

The issue is important, the group noted, because Short had previously disclosed investments in COVID-related businesses. He played a key role in developing the nation’s pandemic response and stood to gain financially from decisions he made or influenced.

Short had previously disclosed holding stocks totaling up to $1.64 million in companies that included drugstores that provided vaccines and COVID tests, and in vaccine maker Johnson & Johnson, which became key in the Trump administration’s pandemic response. 

“It’s been more than 200 days since Marc Short’s departure from the White House. His failure to complete his termination reports threatens to undermine the public’s confidence in our public financial disclosure process, particularly where it concerns an official who played a key role in the last administration’s pandemic response and financial interests that may have been affected by that response,” Noah Bookbinder, president of the ethics group, said in a statement. “The Office of Government Ethics should investigate and hold him accountable to the law.”