Twitter Hoax: No, Nancy Pelosi Did Not Rush Out And Buy Cannabis Stocks After Biden's Pardon Announcement

This Tweet exploded onto cyberspace and spread like "the lie that traveled halfway around the world before the truth could put its shoes on."  

AP’S assessment, which no one seems to doubt: False. Reuters never published such a report. Additionally, financial disclosures show no record of Pelosi making such a stock purchase, which a spokesperson for the California congresswoman’s office also confirmed.

After President Biden announced on Thursday that he was pardoning federal cannabis convictions and cannabis stocks went a bit berserk. Social media users apparently went a little crazy as well. Although it's not the first time we've heard about our political leaders, and their spouses, making out big in the stock market. 

On this occasion, social media users broadly shared the hoax via screenshots of the original, which was made to look like it came from a popular Twitter TWTR account, Breaking911. However, the tweet was actually posted by an account with a different username.

A second tweet noted that shares of Canopy Growth Corp CGC, which trades under the ticker WEED on the Toronto Stock Exchange, circulated widely as well. One post of the screenshots was liked more than 20,000 times and shared more than 4,000 times as of Monday. 

Again, Reuters never published this claim, and there is no evidence to suggest Pelosi had bought shares of Canopy Growth. 

Due Diligence...Unknown In The Twitterverse?

Heather Carpenter, a spokesperson for Reuters, confirmed in an email to the AP that the news agency did not publish the claim. “This is not a Reuters story,” Carpenter wrote.

A spokesperson for Pelosi confirmed the same. “No such transaction has been made,” Drew Hammill, Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff told the AP in an email.

Pelosi has said she does not trade stocks herself although her Paul Pelosi is an investment banker who has made millions in the market.

Congressmembers, The Stock Market And Influence Of Corporate Lobbying

Critics have argued that members of Congress and their families should not be allowed to trade individual stocks at all, because they may have the opportunity to profit off insider information gained through their official duties.

In May, a report from Unusual Whales called “Lobbying’s influence on Congress and Congressional trading” shared a look at the top lobbying companies in 2021 and the members of Congress who actively traded off companies that lobbied at the Capitol. 

“I just analyzed how lobbying influences Congressional trading. Congress is more likely to trade if companies lobbied to them,” according to UnusualWhales.

Photo: Oleksandrum by Shutterstock and Wikimedia Commons