Along with replacing Kristi Noem at the helm of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Senator Markwayne Mullin is a prolific and notorious Congressional trader who drew attention to potential insider activity as recently as March 2.
Specifically, among the sea of significant stock sales and purchases, a February 4 investment – valued at up to $50,000 – in a company called Carpenter Technology (NYSE: CRS) proved particularly suspect.
Carpenter produces high-performance alloys that have their most important use with the military in equipment such as helicopters, aircraft, missiles, and armored vehicles.
Why Markwayne Mullin’s CRS stock investment is suspicious
Some of the key reasons why the investment of interest are that the purchase came less than a month before President Donald Trump, in cooperation with Israel, launched a new war – or large-scale military operation, as the White House describes it – with Iran.
Furthermore, as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Mullin likely had access to information regarding the assault weeks in advance and, also interestingly, chose to file the disclosure only after military operations started.
It is notable that, despite some attempts to paint the bombing campaign as an emergency response to alleged Iranian plans to attack, figures within the Trump Administration and their counterparts in Tel Aviv have also claimed the operation has been planned for months and approved weeks ago.
New ICE Chief Markwayne Mullin’s other notable 2026 trades
Elsewhere, while the purchase of CRS stock is the most pointed given the recent developments in the Middle East, it is noteworthy that Senator Mullin’s trading volume is of a scale seldom seen in Congress.
Between purchases and sales, the politician moved up to about $3 million in equity across some 50 trades. A significant portion of the sales was in various municipal securities, as well as several banking and technology stocks, like Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS).
Some of Markwayne Mullin’s other interesting purchases involve Citigroup (NYSE: C), and the semiconductor and artificial intelligence (AI)-related Credo Technology (NASDAQ: CRDO) and Amkor Technology (NASDAQ: AMKR).
Along with belonging to the sector that has arguably become an all-or-nothing bet for the American economy, they, in a roundabout way, also belong to the defense industry due to the growing use of AI systems – usually supplied by Palantir (NASDAQ: PLTR) – by the armed forces.
Is this sale evidence Markwayne Mullin is not trading on insider knowledge?
Simultaneously, a particularly interesting sale – and potential evidence that Senator Mullin does not trade on insider information – involved Coherent Corp (NYSE: COHR).
COHR stock enjoyed a strong rally at the start of March on news of a partnership with and investment from Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), and though the latest upside has largely been erased by press time on March 6, the equity is nonetheless trading 20% above the politician’s selling price.
Featured image via Shutterstock
