Since the beginning of the pandemic, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has repeatedly challenged public health officials and made a sport out of trying to discredit Dr. Anthony Fauci any chance he gets. Many assumed he was just trying to rally up his base ahead of his 2022 reelection campaign. But a long-overdue financial disclosure statement suggests darker, more sinister motives might be at play.

According to a financial disclosure released just yesterday, Paul’s wife and frequent defender on Twitter, Kelley, purchased as much as $15,000 worth of stock in Gilead Sciences, maker of the antiviral drug remdesivir, back in February 2020.

Remdesivir, of course, was the first drug to be approved by the FDA for treating COVID-19.

The STOCK Act, which was first enacted in 2012 to monitor congressional insider trading and the illegal use of nonpublic information for one’s personal financial benefit, requires lawmakers report all trade disclosures within 45 days.

Paul turned in his report 16 months late.

His office says the delay wasn’t intentional and that the filing simply got lost in the shuffle. Also, Kelley’s investment lost money. Sooooo nothing to see here, folx!

“Last year Dr. Paul completed the reporting form for an investment made by his wife using her own earnings, an investment which she has lost money on,” Paul’s spokesperson, Kelsey Cooper, said in a statement.

“In the process of preparing to file his annual financial disclosure for last year, he learned that the form was not transmitted and promptly alerted the filing office and requested their guidance. In accordance with that guidance he filed both reports today.”

Gilead stock traded for about $75 a share the day Kelley made her purchase. By April, it was up to $84 a share, before dropping back down.

According to the report, Kelley spent between $1,000 and $15,000 on Gilead stock in February of 2020, just as the World Health Organization announced the drug “may have real efficacy” in treating severe cases of COVID-19.

In May 2020, the FDA issued an emergency use authorization for remdesivir after preliminary results of a notable study were released at the end of April showing it was, in fact, helpful. And by October, it officially approved the antiviral medication.

Eight days after his wife purchased stock in Gilead, Paul voted against an $8.3 billion emergency coronavirus bill. He was the only senator to do so.

Earlier this week, Paul had his YouTube account suspended for seven days after he posted a video falsely claiming that masks are ineffective in fighting the spread of COVID-19. He called his suspension from the popular video sharing platform a “badge of honor” in a tweet.

Graham Gremore is the Features Editor and a Staff Writer at Queerty. Follow him on Twitter @grahamgremore.

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