Can the NY AG probe MAGA stock moves?

Trump told his followers to buy stocks hours before his 90-day tariff pause, and there was a lot of suspicious stock activity. While it may seem like little can be done about it, think again.

The last 10 days have been among the most volatile in the history of American stock markets — but unlike past shocks, driven by bank failures, terrorism, or global viral pandemics, this one was driven almost entirely by the vacillating whims of one man.

That one man then urged his followers to “BUY” only a few hours before making yet another announcement that moved the markets, triggering one of the biggest one-day rallies ever seen, with the mere promise that the economy-crushing tariff taxes were to be paused for 90 days, a promise that has already deflated like a cheap balloon after a child’s birthday party.

More disturbingly, though, there are numerous reports of very unusual activity just before Donald Trump’s announcement — huge volume only minutes beforehand, “interesting chatter on the [House] floor,” and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, for example, appearing to make a killing by buying into stocks that had been wrecked by the tariff news (including stocks like Restoration Hardware that she does not appear to have ever bought before), only to skyrocket on the pause announcement.

This has led to an array of calls for some sort of an investigation — yet without any sort of specificity has to who should be doing the investigating, how, and on what grounds. Indeed, one might think that with Republicans in charge in Washington, no investigation could possibly happen.

That assumption would be wrong.

The answer is the Attorney General of the State of New York — the office with the media-granted moniker of the “Sheriff of Wall Street.”

Looking for someone to investigate suspicious stock purchases timed with Trump’s tariff pause announcement? Look no further.

Why? How? It’s all about the jurisdiction. The New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ are both based in NYC — and are thus governed by New York State’s century-old Martin Act, which gives the NY AG strong authority to investigate any kind of fraud or deceptive practice regarding securities, including insider trading. That investigatory authority is typically exercised first through subpoenas (not only to the targets, but to the entities that processed the trades) and can then result in civil or criminal prosecutions, with a 6-year statute of limitations, and no ability for a president to issue a pardon.¹

So forget about an investigation in the House or Senate (which Republicans would likely prevent), or anything from the federal Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC, now controlled by Trump), or anything from DOJ (ditto). None of those are likely at all.

There is also little chance of successful legislation right now to forbid members of Congress and the administration from trading in individual stocks — although that should be a rallying cry of every single Democratic candidate in 2026 and beyond, not only to prevent such insider trading from occurring anymore, but also to eliminate any possible appearance of corruption, of insiders being able to enrich themselves because of their positions of public trust, while the rest of us suffer from eroding life savings and higher costs of living.

And even when there is not a global financial crisis unfolding, we need to establish now once and for all the principle that government officials, regardless of party, are public servants who work for the people, not pigs at the trough who have special access to insider information from which they — or their friends — can privately profit. It should be one of the core demands of a true Populist platform that could win over a broad coalition of voters, even including some disaffected MAGA fans who have to come realize that Trump and his cronies are just in it for themselves, lining their own pockets. But again, that’s a political argument for elections to come, rather than the basis for any realistic legal investigation that could take place right now.

In the meantime, if officials like AOC or Hakeem Jeffries or Elizabeth Warren want to see investigations occur — today, this instant — the place to look is New York, and the person to call is NY AG Letitia James.

1. Even if there may not be enough evidence of intent — thus opening the door to criminal charges — the possibility of civil prosecutions is a very important one, as it could result in the targets being compelled to cough up their unfairly obtained windfalls, plus paying penalties to the state.