Tom Kean, Jr. will officially join Congress on Tuesday, and he’s working on a “Qualified Blind Trust” in part to avoid the mistakes of his predecessor.
“Tomorrow I will take the Oath of Office and be sworn in to represent nearly 800,000 New Jersey families in the U.S. Congress,” Kean explained in a Monday night statement. “I am committed to bringing the highest level of ethics and transparency to this office. It is a privilege and an honor to serve on behalf of our communities, and I believe Members of Congress owe their constituents full and timely reporting on their disclosures. I have also asked my legal counsel to work with the House Ethics Committee to determine steps to establish a Qualified Blind Trust. I will continue to be open and transparent throughout this process.”
The longtime former state senator and son of the former governor declared $6.5 million in assets last fall; outgoing Democrat Congressman Tom Malinowski only created a blind trust of his own after being caught violating the STOCK Act.
According to the United States Office of Government Ethics, “[a] qualified blind trust may hold most types of assets, such as cash, stocks, bonds, or mutual funds. It is important to note that any asset initially placed in the trust is not considered blind and continues to pose a potential conflict of interest until it has been divested or reduced to a value of less than $1,000. The new assets purchased by the trustee will not be disclosed to you, so they will be considered blind and will not pose conflicts of interest.”
Kean defeated Malinowski 52.3% to 47.7% in November, flipping a newly-reconfigured NJ-07 four years after Malinowski defeated Republican Leonard Lance back in 2018.
