> ...And, being an investor in a company is not illegal under our capitalist system, so a
> little more evidence of how this was influenced by the Senator to benefit her husband,
> other than conspiracy theories, would be nice.


Conspire:
verb (third-person singular simple present conspires, present participle conspiring, simple past and past participle conspired)

To secretly plot or make plans together, often used regarding something bad or illegal.
(intransitive) To agree, to concur to one end.
To try to bring about.
Angry clouds conspire your overthrow. — Bp. Hall.


I know of some officials at a large and well known California transit agency (in a position to influence contract awarding) that went to jail for nothing more than this; and one that almost did. Their "spouses" owned stock in companies that got procurement contracts with the agency. The spouse of the one that did not go to jail, was merely an officer of a company that put in a bid. Nevertheless, his job at the agency went aft gang aglee when they found out. He failed to disclose her position and her natural influence on him.

In the cases I was aware of, It all was done in stealth, with willful non-disclosure and secrecy, by multiple people working with each other - just as in the wiktionary definition above. I was frequently employed at the time, to refute their asinine technical assertions supporting their actions - an effort that thwarted them long enough - until their treachery was discovered by the FBI (how they discovered it I do not know).

But Naaaaaaw - let's not call it that. That "C" word is so square! So not cool! So banal. So wingnutish, So politically incorrect! BUT Let's do call it what it IS for sure - ILLEGAL and UNETHICAL!

None had recused themselves. But then again, neither did Sen Feinstein recuse herself, nor did she refrain from peddling her influence over CHSRA - not even in the slightest. We only know (or suspect) anything about it; only because of hated news media breaking the story (they must have forgot she is a Democrat). Oh, and btw, I heard about it on ABC radio news - and also more detail in the back pages of the local paper, and I don't even live in California.

So Yes, it is generally illegal! - when you work in the public arena, to participate in, or in any way influence a public agency administering a contract; while you have any financial or biased connection whatsoever, to any bidder or potential bidder. And it certainly is and always was unethical! Not that that would matter much to the likes of Ms. Hypocrite herself. That her husband has any connection whatsoever, to any bidder; while she holds major sway and purse-string power over any public agency entertaining those bids - certainly STINKS TO HIGH HEAVEN !

That is why personal attorneys were often retained, and why the public agencies hire their lawyers; To keep us all out of trouble (seeing to it that we do not unknowingly cross any shady lines). But I don't suppose a known power broker such as Sen Feinstein needs to worry much about that sort of thing; especially in a one party state, where an overwhelming majority has their head deep in the sand, or deep in some other places where the sun don't shine.