There is an ad running all over TV in Louisiana from a PAC which is backing Bill Cassidy (you didn’t know that, but yeah) about Julia Letlow and how she’s been taking advantage of congressional insider trading opportunities like she was mini-Nancy Pelosi. They’re even putting Letlow’s picture next to Pelosi’s, which would make you think she has to be just as bad as Queen Nan.

Here’s the ad in the infinitesimal chance you haven’t seen it…

Sounds pretty rough.

It’s politics, though, so you pretty much have to take everything these people say with a grain of salt. And now Letlow’s campaign has decided they’re going to tell their side of the story.

A video just released today…

And there’s more. The campaign put this out as well…

Bill Cassidy’s super PAC has spent millions of dollars trying to deceive Louisiana Republicans that Congresswoman Julia Letlow engaged in insider trading. It is not true. The underlying facts — all of them — tell the opposite story. This is a deliberate misrepresentation of a paperwork timing issue, and Cassidy’s team knows it.

What Actually Happened:

Congresswoman Letlow’s personal investments are managed entirely by an independent, third-party financial advisory firm operating with full discretionary authority. She does not choose individual stocks. She does not direct trades. She does not receive advance notice of transactions. By the firm’s own structure and by her own practice, she is completely removed from day-to-day investment decisions — what compliance professionals describe as two layers removed from any individual trade.

When Congresswoman Letlow identified that the advisory firm had not been filing required STOCK Act disclosures on the timeline Congress requires, she acted immediately. She retained legal counsel, conducted a comprehensive review of all transactions, and voluntarily submitted every reportable transaction to the House Ethics Committee. The Committee accepted all filings and waived any fine. She has since implemented additional compliance controls to ensure this doesn’t happen again and publicly supports reforms to strengthen congressional financial transparency, including the Stop Insider Trading Act.

This is, by definition, what compliance and self-correction look like. There was no insider trading. There was no improper activity. There was a paperwork timing issue that was identified, disclosed, and resolved.

Why Cassidy’s Claims Fall Apart

Cassidy’s allies have pointed to a specific date — November 19, 2024 — as supposed evidence of insider trading. Their claim: a House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on the NIH was held that day, and trades in pharmaceutical company Amgen and medical equipment manufacturer Waters Corporation were executed the same day, suggesting Letlow used information from the hearing to guide trades.

There are two problems with this claim. Both are fatal to it.

First: Congresswoman Letlow was not present at the November 19 hearing. This is not a matter of dispute — it is a documented fact, verifiable in the official attendance record. The YouTube archive of the hearing is publicly available and she does not appear. Cassidy’s team is citing a hearing she did not attend as evidence she traded on information she never heard.

Second: If Letlow were actually using insider congressional knowledge to trade pharmaceutical stocks, the results would show it. They don’t. Her managed portfolio returned 9.08 percent in the period from October 2024 through September 2025. The S&P 500 returned 17.69 percent over the same period. A member of Congress with genuine access to market-moving information and the intent to profit from it does not underperform the broader market by nearly half. That is not what insider trading looks like. That is what a normal, passively managed investment account looks like.

The Cassidy Coverup

Bill Cassidy voted to impeach President Donald Trump. He has spent the years since trying to survive that vote in a state where nearly 70 percent of Republican primary voters want to replace him. His own internal numbers show him running third. Facing a candidate who has the President’s endorsement and a conservative record he cannot match, Cassidy has made a strategic decision: spend outside money attacking Julia Letlow rather than defend his own record.

The Stock Act attacks are not a good-faith concern about congressional ethics. If they were, Cassidy’s team would not be citing a hearing Letlow didn’t attend as the centerpiece of their case.

These are manufactured attacks from a campaign that cannot win on the merits.

Key Facts for Reference

• Letlow’s investments are managed by an independent third-party firm with full discretionary authority. She does not direct individual trades.
• The STOCK Act issue was a filing timeline violation — not a trading violation, not insider trading, and not a fine-worthy offense. The House Ethics Committee waived any penalty.
• Letlow was not present at the November 19, 2024 NIH hearing cited by Cassidy’s allies. Attendance records and video archive confirm this.
• Her managed portfolio returned 9.08% from October 2024 to September 2025, compared to 17.69% for the S&P 500 — dramatically underperforming the market.
• After identifying the compliance gap, Letlow retained counsel, disclosed all transactions voluntarily, and implemented additional controls.

On the Record Statements

Congresswoman Letlow (2/20/26): “Bill Cassidy knows he can’t defend his record, so he’s resorting to desperate, false attacks to distract from what Louisiana voters haven’t forgotten: he voted to impeach President Trump and he’s been out of step with our party ever since.”

Campaign spokesperson (2/20/26): “Congresswoman Letlow did not direct, approve, or have prior knowledge of any trades; they were executed independently by a third-party firm with discretionary authority over a managed account. This was a delayed reporting issue under the STOCK Act and not insider trading. The insinuations being pushed by desperate political opponents are false and deliberately misleading. The Congresswoman was not present at the hearing referenced and had no knowledge of any individual trades executed that day — or any day.”

That’s Letlow’s response.

The campaign also noted that Laura Cassidy, Bill’s wife, made 15 trades on December 7, 2018 worth about $225,000, on stocks like Walmart, Starbucks, Proctor & Gamble, Novartis, JP Morgan Chase, Microsoft, Medtronic, ExxonMobil, Disney, Comcast and a few others, and she didn’t report those trades until August 19 0f 2019.

So it’s sort of a Physician, Heal Thyself kind of thing, and maybe the Cassidys don’t have any room to talk about Letlow’s portfolio.

Letlow also said she’s for that bill in Congress now that would ban all the insider stock trading. To his credit, Cassidy also says he’s for it.

Again, this is Team Letlow’s side of the story which we haven’t heard up until now.

They say that in politics, if you’re explaining, you’re losing. Maybe Cassidy’s PAC won just by forcing Letlow to spend time on this. But it might not be a scandal with a lot of staying power if this is all there is to it.