Jake Sullivan’s Wife Rushes To Clean Up ‘Bizarre’ Financial Disclosure Amid Heated Primary Campaign

When Maggie Goodlander, the wife of White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, filed an incomplete financial disclosure ahead of a heated congressional primary in New Hampshire, she said she did not have the necessary information to determine the value of her assets. That excuse doesn't pass the smell test, according to a Washington Free Beacon review, which found that Goodlander appears to have copied what Sullivan had already reported to the public in his own disclosure—but removed the asset values that her husband included.

Goodlander, a former Justice Department official who served as a senior adviser to President Joe Biden, is running to replace outgoing Rep. Annie Kuster (D., N.H.). In her initial financial disclosure, filed in August, Goodlander reported that she could not determine the value of most of her assets, including stocks, Treasury bills, and other readily discernible holdings.

After facing backlash—the legal counsel for the nonpartisan watchdog group Campaign Legal Center told the Hill the filing was "pretty bizarre"—Goodlander painted the omission as a routine mistake. "The campaign completed the initial financial disclosure with all the information it was able to obtain at the time," her campaign said in a statement. "Like with many first-time candidates, the campaign will file an amendment once it receives the additional information it requested."

Goodlander did so on Tuesday, revealing in an updated disclosure that her net worth could exceed $30 million thanks to substantial stock holdings and ownership in New Hampshire rental properties and retail shopping centers in Florida. It appears unlikely, however, that Goodlander's revised financial disclosure will settle the questions raised about her initial filing.

For starters, Goodlander almost certainly had more "information" about her assets than she let on. The order, description, and numbering of what Goodlander reported in her initial disclosure are, for the most part, an exact match to what Sullivan disclosed in his, with one significant exception: Sullivan had disclosed the value of her assets in his filing, while Goodlander said she could not determine the value of those same assets.

The odd nature of Goodlander’s initial financial disclosure has already become a thorn in her side as she looks to defeat Kuster's hand-picked successor, Colin Van Ostern.

New Hampshire Democratic state Rep. Paige Beauchemin, an ally of Van Ostern, filed an ethics complaint on Tuesday urging the Department of Justice to investigate Goodlander for "actively trying to deceive the public about her finances." For Paul Kamenar, an attorney with the National Legal and Policy Center watchdog group, Goodlander's asset value omission could be intentional, given her legal background and experience in government. Goodlander served as a top adviser to Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2021 when he oversaw a special counsel investigation into former president Donald Trump's alleged links to Russia.

"For someone who held a high law enforcement position in the Justice Department who was later detailed to the White House, Maggie Goodlander's financial disclosure report is sloppy at best and inaccurate at worst," Kamenar told the Free Beacon, adding that the House Ethics Committee should review both her original and revised filing for potential reporting violations.

It’s unclear why Goodlander omitted the numbers her husband reported in his financial disclosure from her own and then falsely claimed to the public they were of an "undetermined" value. Her campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Goodlander is embroiled in a heated and bitter primary campaign against Van Ostern, who has accused her of carpetbagging. Though Goodlander and Sullivan own a $1.2 million home in New Hampshire, it isn’t in the district she seeks to represent, and she has spent most of her adult life living out of the state.

Van Ostern says Goodlander’s only connection to New Hampshire’s Second Congressional District is the home she started renting shortly before entering the race. Goodlander inherited most of her wealth from her grandfather, real estate developer Sam Tamposi, who became a part-owner of the Boston Red Sox in 1977 before his death in 1995.

Though Goodlander's initial disclosure mostly matched her husband's—minus the asset values—there is one notable discrepancy between the two filings. Sullivan reported in his latest financial disclosure that he had a mortgage with First Republic Bank for "1/3 of mortgage on family member’s home" worth up to $1 million. But Goodlander’s revised disclosure filed on Tuesday does not mention that debt.

Goodlander and Van Ostern will face off at the ballot box on Tuesday. Goodlander holds a 6-point lead in the contest, according to the most recent poll. The winner of the primary is expected to coast through the general election in November.

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