Louisiana Dem Rep. Cleo Fields quietly bought six figures worth of Netflix stock just before acquisition deal with Warner Bros.
WASHINGTON — A Louisiana congressman quietly took a sizable stake in Netflix just weeks before the streaming service announced its blockbuster purchase of Warner Bros.
Between Oct. 31 and Nov. 20, Rep. Cleo Fields (D‑La.) bought somewhere between $500,000 and $1.25 million worth of Netflix shares, according to House financial disclosures. The timing is striking: the stock market was holding its breath as the company revealed last Friday that it was buying Warner Bros and its assets, such as HBO Max, for a staggering $82.7 billion.
That deal could still be derailed by the Justice Department, especially as Paramount pushes back and the Trump administration lobbies to shut it down. Netflix’s own stock has slipped since Fields’ purchases, with investors wary of a possible bidding war and lingering doubts about the merger’s fate.
In the filing records, Fields made five separate purchases ranging from $100,001 to $250,000 on Oct. 31, Nov. 3, and Nov. 20. The reports do not show the exact dollar amounts. The first trade on Oct. 31 coincided with Netflix’s highest share price during that stretch, at $111.89 per share. By the time the stock closed on that Wednesday, the price had fallen to $92.71, a roughly 17% drop from the earlier purchase.
The Post reached out to Fields’ office seeking clarity, but no explanation has surfaced yet.
Fields also invested in other tech giants over the same period, including Apple, Alphabet (Google’s parent), and Nvidia. So far, he’s the only member of Congress to reveal a Netflix investment within the past month, as CapitolTrades records indicate.
House GOP Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R‑Mich.) is the most recent congressperson to trade Netflix stock. She disclosed two sales ranging from $1,001 to $15,000 on Oct. 30 and Oct. 31, and a single purchase within the same range on Oct. 30. Her activity is relatively modest compared to Fields’ larger stake.
The revelation comes amid a bipartisan effort to ban stock trading by members of Congress, led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R‑Fla.). Luna has been collecting signatures for a discharge petition that would force a vote on the ban by bypassing the usual committee process. Even though she’s still a few votes shy of the 218 needed to guarantee a floor vote, she says the time for political posturing is over. “A discharge petition is the strongest tool we have to guarantee a vote on behalf of the American people, and it exists for moments exactly like this,” Luna said.
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