U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff

ATLANTA – U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., is putting his entire stock portfolio into a blind trust, the first-year senator announced Wednesday, fulfilling a campaign promise.

Stock holdings by members of Congress became an issue early last year when the Justice Department began investigating stock transactions then-Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., and two Senate colleagues made following a closed-door briefing during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.

Loeffler said the transactions were made by a third-party advisor without her input, and the Justice Department later dropped the investigation without finding any wrongdoing.

However, Loeffler later liquidated her holdings in individual stocks and converted those assets into broader exchange-traded funds and mutual funds, a step she said she took to end a distraction over false allegations.

In putting his stock holdings into a blind trust, Ossoff said he’s following an example set by former Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga.

“Georgians deserve confidence that elected representatives are serving the people and not themselves,” Ossoff said. “I will continue to work in the Senate to strengthen ethics rules.”

Ethics and good government groups have pointed to blind trusts as a way to increase Americans’ faith in government by ensuring members of Congress avoid conflicts of interest and cannot trade on inside information.