Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., stated on Thursday that the Justice Department is failing to hold lawmakers accountable for alleged misconduct while aggressively prosecuting a U.S. service member linked to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Federal authorities charged a U.S. Army soldier with using classified information about an operation that captured Maduro in January to place bets on a prediction market, netting more than $400,000. Prosecutors indicated the soldier could face decades in prison for fraud and related charges.
Luna said she does not condone the service member’s actions but questioned why similar scrutiny is not applied to Congress. “Every single day in Congress, you have multiple members of Congress that are engaging in insider trading,” she said. She noted that efforts to ban such practices have faced resistance, including a statement by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries telling Democrats not to support the ban.
Luna described widespread ethical problems within Congress, including insider trading, sexual misconduct, and misuse of funds. “I am literally serving with many people who are morally bankrupt, and it’s on both sides,” she said.
She pointed to recent resignations of lawmakers and alleged misconduct cases, arguing that the Justice Department has failed to act. “Most people go to jail over stuff like this … and yet you have people — members of Congress — going on TV telling the American people, ‘I promise I’m going to do right by you,'” she said.
Luna emphasized that without accountability in Congress, she will continue advocating for leniency in the soldier’s case. She stated the current system reflects a “blatantly obvious” imbalance and plans to call for the service member to be pardoned if convicted, proposing instead that authorities “disgorge his profits” and allow him to return to military service.
“An unpopular take,” Luna said, “I’m going to be asking for him to be pardoned.”
