There are currently fines for not reporting that often get waived. Even if they did make the fines legit, it becomes very difficult to track & indict them for tipping off friends or non-family members unless it's a very large amount worth many millions.
Though to counter this argument the article mentions a few cases. North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr was not mentioned but he is still being investigated for what seemed like very obvious trading based on knowledge gained & tipping off family members.
Alabama Sen. Tuberville is another good one to watch for trades in my opinion. He's very active. Last year he put out some big tech puts on MSFT that were very OTM (out of the money) for the spring of this year.
Rep. Pelosi is overrated a bit in my opinion but is often the joke of these talks. Her husband Paul (a VC) most likely does all the trading & he seems to have just benefitted from using calls on stocks that are already ITM (in the money) & far dated. He's probably not a good person to use if you're working in tech in my opinion as your job & personal knowledge probably make you overweight in tech risks. Anyone mentioning Pelosi should also probably not be considered knowledgeable on this subject since she's 99% of the noise on it & very little substance.
- Edit - It should be noted, anyone frequenting investment forums probably made a lot of these Covid trades before the dates many of these senators did. Not defending the senators but also the Covid thing was gaining a lot of traction in January & February. Many senators & reps didn't trade on it until March.