WASHINGTON — A watchdog group filed an ethics complaint against Michigan Republican U.S. Rep. John James on Tuesday over his failure to properly disclose 145 stock trades and file a financial disclosure on time.

James of Shelby Township said previously he was unaware of the trades because they took place under a financial trust “that functions as a blind trust,” according to his office.

Still, End Citizens United — a left-leaning advocacy group focusing on money in politics — submitted the complaint to the U.S. House of Representatives' Office of Congressional Ethics.

"Rep. James kept the public in the dark on millions of dollars of stock trades and his own personal finances and must be held accountable,” End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller said. “His blatant disregard for the law, which he is clearly well aware of, is unacceptable and shows he cannot be trusted.”

The complaint might prompt an investigation by the Ethics Office, an independent and nonpartisan entity responsible for reviewing allegations of misconduct against members of Congress. The office has the discretion to dismiss the claim against James or dig into whether the late filings were due to an honest mistake, as he has said.

“Last year, the trust’s administrator switched mutual funds to stocks and John was not aware of this. We learned about this last month when preparing this disclosure. The trust administrator has now divested all stocks and we will be filing information reflecting those sales shortly,” James spokesperson Noah Sadlier said in a statement to The Detroit News on Sept. 6.

The first-term congressman wrote a letter to the U.S. House Clerk’s Office, which is responsible for financial disclosures, seeking to clarify the situation.

“It is critical to note that there has been no impropriety nor has any impropriety been alleged,” James wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The News. “Regardless, my team and I are committed to providing accurate information quickly and in a transparent, forthright manner. Moreover, I am taking aggressive measures to ensure these types of errors do not occur in the future.”

James also said he filed a late annual financial disclosure on Sept. 3, more than three weeks after his Aug. 13 deadline, because he was “prioritizing integrity and transparency above haste in correcting these newly uncovered errors.”

Sadlier declined to comment Tuesday on the complaint and referred back to his and James' previous statements on the matter.

If the nonpartisan Ethics Office decides to proceed through a full investigation, it will ultimately issue a recommendation — for further review or dismissal — to the U.S. House Committee on Ethics. That panel is made up of 10 members of the U.S. House, consisting of five Republicans and five Democrats.

End Citizens United's primary complaint against James is that he violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, commonly referred to as the STOCK Act. The law is meant to provide the public with timely information about the financial activity from members of Congress.

The complaint noted that "some of the transactions are as many as 252 days late — depriving the public of their ability to determine whether he engaged in activity that could constitute a conflict of interest for over eight months," according to a copy of the document obtained by The News.

Late stock disclosure violations happen regularly, said Kedric Payne, vice president of the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center in Washington, D.C.

“This is a large number of transactions that were not reported on time,” Payne told The News on Sept. 6, noting that James will need to pay a $200 fine as stipulated by the STOCK Act. “But unfortunately, it is quite common for members of Congress not to comply with this requirement.”

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