I don't think that's a very accurate description of the situation. There's no specific law against insider trading. Insider trading restrictions arose out of case law rather than legislation. Enforcement of the law changes as judicial interpretations changes, but judges don't get lobbied. The strictest that insider trading law has ever been was 2009-2013.
Prior to 2009 insider trading cases were generally clear cut situations like an accountant telling a trader about an upcoming merger in exchange for a bribe. Then Preet Bharara started pursing insider trading cases very aggressively, punishing people for being downstream of insider information, even when they didn't know the original source, and no one was bribed.
Starting in 2014 judges started pushing back on this broad interpretation of insider trading rules. Recently a 2013 guilty plea for insider trading was vacated because the behavior he admitted to is no longer considered against the law. Again, this isn't because of lobbying, but because judges have decided that the correct view of insider trading is the one that existed prior to 2009, not the broader one that Preet Bahrara pushed for. Even the laxer standard for insider trading that judges have returned to make the US stricter than most countries in enforcing insider trading.
Politicians aren't considered insiders in the traditional view of insider trading. Trading on Congressional information, which you alluded to, was legal until 2012, when it was banned not coincidentally while insider trading law was expanding in other ways.
Prior to 2009 insider trading cases were generally clear cut situations like an accountant telling a trader about an upcoming merger in exchange for a bribe. Then Preet Bharara started pursing insider trading cases very aggressively, punishing people for being downstream of insider information, even when they didn't know the original source, and no one was bribed.
Starting in 2014 judges started pushing back on this broad interpretation of insider trading rules. Recently a 2013 guilty plea for insider trading was vacated because the behavior he admitted to is no longer considered against the law. Again, this isn't because of lobbying, but because judges have decided that the correct view of insider trading is the one that existed prior to 2009, not the broader one that Preet Bahrara pushed for. Even the laxer standard for insider trading that judges have returned to make the US stricter than most countries in enforcing insider trading.
Politicians aren't considered insiders in the traditional view of insider trading. Trading on Congressional information, which you alluded to, was legal until 2012, when it was banned not coincidentally while insider trading law was expanding in other ways.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sac-insidertrading-lee/u-...