PLAINS TWP. — Democratic congressional candidate and Scranton Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti accused Republican U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan of public corruption Wednesday after resurfaced audio of a 2025 radio interview raised questions about his long-claimed lack of involvement in his stock trades while in office.
Bresnahan campaign spokesman Chris Pack fired back in a statement reiterating the first-term GOP incumbent “has consistently said that he does not have any involvement in stock trades, no matter how much Goldman Sachs private wealth advisor Paige Cognetti tries to take his comments out of context to prop up her campaign.”
Cognetti worked for Goldman Sachs from about 2014 to 2016, years before winning a 2019 special election for Scranton mayor as an independent candidate following former Democratic Mayor Bill Courtright’s corruption scandal.
Mayor of Scranton and Pa. Congressional candidate Paige Cognetti speaks to press during a conference at PSEA in Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
“The fact that the local media is once again amplifying her desperate lies, first published by a liberal DC blog, perfectly illustrates why trust in local journalism continues to collapse,” Pack said.
The stock-trading issue has dogged Bresnahan, who campaigned on and supports banning congressional stock trading, since an April New York Times report identified him as “one of the most active stock traders in the freshman class.” As Pack noted, Bresnahan and his spokespeople have said and continue to maintain he isn’t involved with and doesn’t provide input on those transactions.
The “liberal DC blog” Pack referenced is Politico, which reported Tuesday on comments Bresnahan made last spring in a local radio interview that critics say undermine those claims.
They came immediately after WILK host Bob Cordaro asked: “Sum and substance you’re saying, ‘Look, I did not buy and sell on information I’ve gleaned here in Congress. My adviser’s doing my trading for me, and I am duly reporting it.’ Is that … a fair summary?”
“Absolutely,” Bresnahan answered. “Right hand to God on my mother’s life, without a question. And honestly … I find out about my holdings sometimes on Twitter, like, I’m not on a day by day, minute by minute. I mean I meet with my financial adviser. We talk about, you know, what different positions are coming up.”
U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan looks on during a press conference at Moses Taylor Hospital in Scranton Thursday, February 26, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Cognetti seized upon the latter part of that answer Wednesday while addressing the media at the Pennsylvania State Education Association Northeast Region office in Plains Twp.
Learning Bresnahan “is actually on the record stating that he speaks with his financial adviser about his stock positions while a sitting member of Congress” was not surprising, but is “extraordinarily disappointing,” Cognetti said.
“This is the exact type of public corruption that led me to get on the Scranton School Board in 2017, that led me to run for mayor in 2019 in the face of a huge scandal in Scranton,” she said. “My time in public office has always been pushing back on corruption.”
“Rob Bresnahan recruited me to this (race) when, during the spring and summer, it became clear from his financial disclosures that he was trading on his votes,” Cognetti said moments later. “We can connect his Medicaid cuts to him trading Medicaid-provider stock, hospital bonds. We can see where he’s purchasing defense stocks when the president is making military decisions that the public doesn’t know about.”
Asked by a reporter if she believes Bresnahan makes trades using inside information, Cognetti said: “He is a sitting member of Congress who votes every week on bills and is also an active stock trader.”
Efforts to reach Bresnahan directly were not immediately successful, but Pack told Politico Bresnahan’s comments in the Cordaro interview were “referring to 30,000 foot investment strategy and not about stock trades.”
“To imply that Rob having the equivalent of a routine annual 401(k) meeting with his financial advisers to discuss risk tolerance amounts to insider trading would mean that every member of Congress or congressional staffer who discusses risk tolerance as part of their retirement planning is also engaged in insider trading,” Pack said, according to Politico.
Fidelity building
Cognetti also defended Wednesday her administration’s decision to purchase the Fidelity Bank building next to Scranton City Hall for a municipal annex. A split city council narrowly approved that purchase in December, but it’s likely to remain an issue in the context of the congressional race.
Politico reported in late February that Republicans “are poised to make” Cognetti’s “support for a local bank a top issue in one of the nation’s most competitive House races.” That report references a $5 million state grant announced in 2024 for a project to restore and renovate the historic Scranton Electric Building to serve as Fidelity’s headquarters, noting Cognetti is “now facing scrutiny for helping secure” the grant funding “at the same time her uncle-in-law sat on the board of the company.”
The Fideilty Bank building at 338 N. Washington Ave. in Scranton on Friday, Nov. 28, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Fidelity’s website lists John T. Cognetti as board secretary. The mayor said she doesn’t “spend a lot of time studying my husband’s relatives’ board memberships,” but touted the Scranton Electric Building project as a “huge investment” and a “very good thing for the future of the city.”
The late-February Politico report also said she received $14,600 in campaign contributions from Fidelity board members months before getting the city to purchase the Fidelity building next to City Hall last year. The newspaper could not immediately confirm that figure, but Mayor Cognetti denied any impropriety and said campaign contributions were not a factor in the decision to buy the building.
“Every decision that I have made is for the well-being and the betterment of the citizens and the city of Scranton,” she said, describing the planned annex as a favorable alternative to the prohibitively expensive prospect of making the 1888 City Hall fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Mayor of Scranton and Pa. Congressional candidate Paige Cognetti speaks to press during a conference at PSEA in Plains Twp. on Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
The prospective annex building also has a built-in security system and offers invaluable space City Hall lacks, including for a “real time crime center” and some relocated police department administrative offices, she said.
“The work that we have done to purchase the building next door to City Hall so it can continue to be City Hall for generations to come is the right thing to do for the City of Scranton,” the mayor said.
Cognetti and Bresnahan are the only two candidates running for the 8th Congressional District seat at this point. The district includes all of Lackawanna, Wayne and Pike and parts of Luzerne and Monroe counties.