๐ฉธ๐ฐ Blood Money Politics: Democratic Zionist Ritchie Torres Profits From Genocide
Democratic Congressman Rep. Ritchie Torres pushed bombs for Israel while secretly investing in the very companies that built them.
Family, this is the kind of truth the powerful never want exposed. When politicians in America are not only backing genocide but profiting from it, we must shine the brightest light possible. Thatโs why this work exists โ to tell the stories that money and power try to bury.
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๐งจ Torres: The $1.4M Man for AIPAC
Few politicians have been more brazenly owned by the pro-Israel lobby than Rep. Ritchie Torres of New Yorkโs 15th District. He has the unique distincton of being the only Black, openly gay, openly Zionist Democrat in Congress. I mention this because he uses each element of his identity to protect himself from criticism from the evil that he does. AIPAC and NORPAC have funneled him more than $1.4 million in campaign contributions, making him one of their most reliable Democratic allies.
When Israel launched its genocidal assault on Gaza in October 2023, Torres positioned himself as one of its fiercest defenders in Washington. He signed letters to President Biden demanding uninterrupted bomb shipments. He attacked colleagues who dared to call for a ceasefire, accusing them of siding with Hamas. And he voted in April 2024 for a $17 billion weapons package to Israel โ one of the largest single allocations of military aid in modern history.
But AIPACโs campaign money wasnโt the only tie binding him to Israelโs war machine. As it turns out, Torres was personally invested in the very companies supplying Israel with bombs and weapons systems.
๐ฃ The Smoking Gun: Torresโ Own Disclosure
On August 20, 2025, Torres filed his official Periodic Transaction Report with the Clerk of the House. It revealed that on September 26, 2024, he had purchased stock in Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and L3Harris Technologies. Shout out to the team at Sludge for finding this.
These arenโt random corporations. Lockheed builds the F-35 fighter jets flying over Gaza. Northrop manufactures precision-guided munitions and drones. L3Harris provides advanced surveillance, communications, and targeting systems to the Israeli military.
The timing is damning. Torres made these investments precisely when he was urging Biden to accelerate bomb deliveries and fighting against even the briefest pause in U.S. weapons transfers. In other words: while Palestinians were being bombed by American-made weapons, Torres was buying into the companies producing those weapons. He continues to do so under the Trump administration.
๐ Concealment and STOCK Act Violations
The 2012 STOCK Act requires members of Congress to disclose stock transactions within 45 days. Torres waited nearly a year. His trades were reported on August 1, 2025 โ long past the legal deadline.
This concealment was not harmless. By delaying disclosure, Torres shielded the public from knowing he had financial skin in the game while casting votes and making public statements about Israelโs war. His rhetoric was not just ideological; it was tied to his personal portfolio.
Under U.S. law, this raises serious questions of conflict of interest and even potential ethics violations. While Congress is notorious for weak enforcement of the STOCK Act, Torresโ conduct exemplifies the very corruption the law was intended to prevent.
๐ฉธ Violations of International Law
Beyond domestic law, Torresโ actions tie him to violations of international law.
Israelโs assault on Gaza has been described by the United Nations, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watchas involving potential war crimes, including the deliberate targeting of civilians and the use of starvation as a weapon of war โ clear breaches of the Geneva Conventions.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) went further, issuing arrest warrants in 2024 for top Israeli leaders on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Torres responded not by acknowledging the severity of those crimes, but by voting with Republicans to sanction the ICC itself.
In doing so, Torres not only defended Israelโs violations of international law โ he attacked the very institutions of accountability designed to enforce it.
When combined with his personal investments in Lockheed, Northrop, and L3Harris, this places him in the realm of complicity. Under international law principles, aiding and abetting war crimes can carry liability. By pushing U.S. arms transfers, shielding Israel from accountability, and financially profiting from the companies that supplied the bombs, Torres crossed from political advocacy into personal profiteering off crimes against humanity.
๐ฉธ Hypocrisy and Blood Money
What makes this even more grotesque is that Torres once co-sponsored the Ban Conflicted Trading Act in 2022. That bill was designed to prohibit members of Congress from trading individual corporate stocks, specifically to avoid situations like this. Torres presented himself as a reformer, claiming he wanted to restore public trust.
Yet when the spotlight dimmed, he did exactly what he said he opposed. He invested in defense contractors at the very moment their weapons were being used to massacre civilians.
This isnโt simply hypocrisy. It is blood money. Palestinian families were burying their children while Torresโ investments in Lockheed, Northrop, and L3Harris sat in his account. Every bomb dropped, every missile fired, every home destroyed โ he was positioned to benefit financially from it.
โ๐ฝ Accountability
This is the rot at the heart of Washington. Torres didnโt just take over a million dollars from AIPAC. He didnโt just vote for genocide. He didnโt just defend war crimes at the United Nations and the ICC. He profited from genocide directly, hiding his trades until it was too late for the public to see the truth in real time.
Thatโs not representation. Thatโs not foreign policy. That is profiteering off mass death.
By any moral standard, by the basic principles of U.S. ethics law, and by the rules of international law, Torres stands exposed. And he is not an outlier. He is a symptom of a political system where lobbyists and lawmakers trade lives for money, where corporate stocks are more important than human survival.
Family, this story proves that corruption in America isnโt abstract โ itโs flesh and blood. Torres lined his pockets while Palestinians were being massacred, and he thought nobody would ever connect the dots. But we did. If you believe this truth must be told, I need you to stand with me today.
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Love and appreciate each of you.
Your friend and brother,
Shaun
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This man is one of the single most despicable human beings in all of Congress
How many of Torres's constituents are aware of this? How many of Torres's colleagues know this? When can we expect them to expel him, indict him, and send him to prison? How many others like Torres are there in our government? Shaun, please keep shining the light on these bottom feeders. I cannot believe most Americans approve of this abhorrent behavior.