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PartialPersonal ethics / conflicts of interest

Pledged, upon election, to place all his stocks, bonds, commodities, and other securities into a blind trust.

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PartialFact-checker reviewConfidence: 75%

Independently re-fetched all four cited sources; all are real, live, and support the rating. VERIFIED ACTION: Sheehy's own Senate office confirms he 'will not trade stocks or bonds while in office' and was 'in the process of placing his liquid assets in a blind trust.' The Bozeman Daily Chronicle (June 3, 2025) confirms he executed two blind trusts signed in April and May 2025, each holding between $5 million and $25 million in Bridger Aerospace stock (up to $50 million total). That is substantial, documented, verifiable follow-through on the pledge - well past ATTEMPTED. VERIFIED SHORTFALL: the pledge was absolute ('all his stocks, bonds, commodities, and other securities'), and the record does not meet it. ProPublica states he moved 'most of his stock' into the trusts, not all. The Chronicle's September 9, 2025 review of his 2024 disclosure shows securities still held directly outside the trusts: up to $500,000 in a Bitcoin investment fund, up to $100,000 in non-public stock in Cloverly, Inc., up to $50,000 in Permian mineral rights, and up to $1 million in Emberline Fire EMC LLC. Directly-held stock and a commodity fund are squarely inside the promise's own wording, so FULL is not available. Contested but non-dispositive: Richard Painter (Bozeman Daily Chronicle) and CREW's Cynthia Brown (ProPublica) question whether the trusts are genuinely blind, noting the trustees are executives of Tallgrass, a firm until March 2025 run by his brother and early Bridger investor Matt Sheehy. That is expert criticism of the arrangement's quality, not proof the trusts were never executed, so it does not drive the rating below PARTIAL. CORRECTION to prior rationale: the Painter criticism comes from the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, not ProPublica; the prior write-up blended the two attributions. Outcome unchanged. FAIRNESS CHECK: a senator of either party who pledged to blind-trust ALL securities, then executed real filed trusts covering the bulk of holdings while retaining several directly-held securities, would receive PARTIAL under the same standard - credited for genuine executed action, denied FULL only because the pledge said 'all.' CHAMPIONED does not apply (this is a personal-conduct pledge, not a legislative effort to lead). Confidence held at 0.75 rather than higher because it is arguable whether mineral rights and a private LLC interest count as 'securities,' and because Senate Select Committee on Ethics certification of the trusts was not independently confirmed in the fetched sources.

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