2,044 events on record Subscribe September 10, 2026
Standing Record home The Standing Record A non-partisan record of US democratic norms —
and the events that erode them.

House Ethics Chair Michael Guest disclosed stock trades six-plus months past STOCK Act deadline

House Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest (R-Miss.) disclosed three stock sales -- in Chevron, Airbnb, and e.l.f. Beauty -- made through a family trust, filing the required report more than six months after the STOCK Act's 45-day deadline. Guest, whose committee is responsible for enforcing the STOCK Act against House members, said a compliance firm missed the trades and that he discovered the omission while preparing his annual financial disclosure; his chief of staff said Guest had no decision-making role in the trust. It was Guest's second STOCK Act violation after a similarly late disclosure in 2021, and he said he would pay the standard late-filing fine without recusing himself from his committee's handling of the penalty.

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Washington, D.C.

Abuses documented

Actors

  • Michael Guest (Chair, House Ethics Committee)

On August 14, 2026, U.S. Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.), chairman of the House Ethics Committee, disclosed three stock sales -- in Chevron, Airbnb, and e.l.f. Beauty -- made through a family trust, more than six months after the STOCK Act's 45-day reporting deadline, as first reported by Mississippi Today and NOTUS on August 17, 2026. The Ethics Committee is the body responsible for enforcing the STOCK Act's disclosure requirement against every other member of the House.

Guest said a compliance firm had missed the trades, and that the omission surfaced only as he was preparing his annual financial disclosure. His chief of staff said Guest has no decision-making role in the family trust, which holds assets for the benefit of his wife, and that Guest was not consulted on the transactions it made. Guest said he would pay the standard late-filing fine and saw no need to recuse himself from his own committee's handling of that penalty.

This is Guest's second confirmed STOCK Act violation. In 2021, he was also more than eight months late disclosing a stock transaction made by the same family trust, a delay he attributed to the trust at the time and for which he paid a $200 late fee.

Why we recorded this

The STOCK Act requires members of Congress to publicly disclose stock trades within 45 days so voters can see whether officials' personal finances align with their policy decisions, and the House Ethics Committee is the body charged with enforcing that requirement against House members. Its own chairman, Michael Guest, filed disclosures for three stock sales more than six months past that deadline -- the second time he has been late, after a similarly delayed filing in 2021. This archive records officials who personally violate the rules they are responsible for enforcing against others, the clearest form of one law for the powerful and another for everyone else.

Sources

  1. House Ethics Chair Michael Guest violates the STOCK Act — Mississippi Today (NOTUS) primary accessed August 18, 2026
  2. House Ethics Chair Violates the STOCK Act — Political Wire secondary accessed August 18, 2026
  3. GOP Rep. Michael Guest Violates Stock Trading Rules, Submitting Disclosures 8 Months Late — Newsweek primary accessed August 18, 2026

See also