Mullin’s ethics file, late stock disclosures, and confirmation-hearing temper hand Democrats the script they need to turn DHS oversight into a circus.
Markwayne Mullin did not walk into Homeland Security alone. He brought the ethics files with him. He brought the stock questions, the business entanglements, and the personal baggage, too.
That is now President Trump’s problem.
Trump voters wanted MAGA to run DHS. They wanted the border secured, deportations moving forward, cartels hit hard, and the permanent bureaucracy put back in its place. They did not vote for four years of conservatives having to explain away late disclosures, old ethics files, plumbing-business questions, and loose talk. A strong DHS secretary helps Trump govern. A messy one hands Trump’s enemies something to use.
Mullin has always sold the same image. Plumber. Businessman. Fighter. Oklahoma conservative. Not another Washington politician. The record does not match the pitch.
In 2012, The Journal Record reported that companies owned by Mullin received $370,000 in federal stimulus money through housing projects in the Cherokee and Muscogee Creek Nations, while Mullin was running as a conservative opponent of federal spending. Mullin told The Journal Record he had “not a clue” the money came from federal stimulus funds.
Most contractors do not get to say they had no idea where the money came from. They are expected to know the job, the contract, the funding, and the risk. Mullin got to campaign against Washington money even as companies he owned took on work tied to it.
Then he got to Congress, and Mullin Plumbing stayed in the picture.
The Office of Congressional Ethics referral found substantial reason to believe Mullin may have violated House rules and federal law through outside income and continued involvement with his plumbing companies, including advertising. The OCE referral also said Mullin received more than $600,000 from the plumbing companies in 2013. The Hill later reported that the House Ethics Committee ordered Mullin to repay $40,000 to the family business after a years-long review. The Hill also reported that the committee said Mullin made good-faith efforts to comply with House rules.
Fine. Put the favorable language in the record. Then ask any small-business owner what happens when the government decides he crossed a line. He does not get years of soft language and patience. He gets notices, penalties, legal bills, and a process designed to wear him down.
Mullin kept climbing Poynter.org reported that businesses linked to Mullin received forgiven Paycheck Protection Program loans. Many legitimate businesses used PPP, and nobody needs to pretend otherwise. But Mullin is not just any business owner. He built his political brand by attacking federal spending while his own business world kept finding ways to access federal help.
Tulsa World reported that Mullin’s disclosed assets jumped from $7.3 million-$29.9 million at the end of 2020 to $31.6 million-$75.6 million in 2021, tied to the sale of his plumbing-related companies to HomeTown Services. Tulsa World also reported that the sale was not specifically listed under transactions, while a HomeTown stake and a $25 million-$50 million cash-management fund investment were both dated Dec. 10, 2021. That is a long way from the simple plumber story.
The campaign side raised more questions. The FEC General Counsel report reviewed a 2022 matter involving Mullin Plumbing ads and campaign imagery during Mullin’s Senate campaign. According to the report, the complaint alleged that Mullin campaign ads featured a Mullin Plumbing vehicle, employees, and logo, and that Mullin Plumbing aired ads using Mullin’s voice while he was a Senate candidate. The file closed without enforcement, according to the FEC closure letter. No conviction. No guilty finding. The question still hangs in the air. Where did Mullin Plumbing end and Mullin politics begin?
The stock record reads the same way. NOTUS reported Mullin violated the STOCK Act after seven stock purchases by his wife were disclosed about two-and-a-half years late and three Oklahoma-connected municipal security purchases by Mullin himself were disclosed about one-and-a-half years late. NOTUS later reported another late filing covering nearly three dozen stock and bond transactions by Mullin and his wife worth between $1.4 million and $3.5 million. Mullin’s office said he uses “an independent, third-party operator firm” to manage his stock investments and that he “does not conduct nor inform trades.”
Maybe so. The public still found out late, and regular conservatives know what that gets them. Miss a deadline with the IRS, a regulator, or a court clerk, then try telling the bureaucrat that somebody else handled it. See how forgiving the system is when it is not a senator on the other end.
Now put that record inside DHS. Newsweek reported that Mullin held at least $305,009 and up to $850,000 in companies whose interests could overlap with DHS responsibilities, including Nvidia, RTX, Caterpillar, Deere, Microsoft, Adobe, and APi Group. NOTUS reported that before taking over DHS, Mullin signed an ethics agreement pledging to divest dozens of individual stocks. That is not the cabinet profile Trump needs while trying to take back control of the border. Every disclosure problem turns into another hearing question and another excuse for Democrats to talk about conflicts instead of illegal immigration, cartels, deportations, and a broken bureaucracy.
The judgment problem is not limited to money. During Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearing, Mullin defended Hegseth against questions about infidelity and drinking by asking how many senators had shown up drunk to vote and how many had “got a divorce before cheating on their wives,” according to PBS NewsHour. Mullin then said, “We’ve all made mistakes. I’ve made mistakes,” and added that his wife had to forgive him “more than once, too,” according to PBS NewsHour.
Whatever Mullin meant by any of that, he put it on the record himself, on camera, while lecturing other people about hypocrisy. Democrats keep transcripts. So does the press. A confirmation hearing is the wrong place to volunteer personal material for the file.
The file on Mullin is years deep. Business money. Ethics questions. Federal help. A private-equity cash-out. FEC scrutiny. Late stock disclosures. DHS conflicts. Personal comments he never had to make. And a temper Rand Paul put directly on the record during the confirmation fight. CBS News reported that Paul called Mullin a “man with anger issues” during the DHS hearing and questioned whether someone who “applauds violence against their political opponents” should lead an agency with more than 250,000 workers.
Trump needs clean fighters at DHS. Mullin brings baggage. In Washington, baggage is never just baggage. It is leverage.
