The Justice Department has launched a probe into a series of stock transactions made by at least one senator just before the market saw a steep downturn due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to reports Monday.
The investigation is being conducted in tandem with the Securities and Exchange Commission and has thus far, reached out to Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), according to CNN, which first reported the probe.
Burr sparked bipartisan outrage over his sale of $1.7 million in publicly traded stocks just one week before the market crashed.
At the time, Burr sat in confidential coronavirus briefings on a near-daily basis while publicly downplaying the threat of the soon-to-be pandemic in media appearances and op-eds he authored.
His investment decisions being made just prior to markets entering a tailspin led critics on both sides of the aisle to accuse him of enriching himself off the crisis.
Burr has since claimed the sales were guided solely by media reports about the rapidly spreading virus. He also said he had requested a Senate Ethics Committee review of his conduct.
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell faced calls from within his own party to remove Burr from chairing the Senate Intelligence Committee while he is under investigation.
“How can @senatemajldr justify leaving someone as the Chairman of the Intelligence Committee . . . who is being investigated by the FBI for criminally abusing their position for personal, financial gain?!?! #wheresmitch,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) tweeted Monday. “Republicans need to do a better job cleaning our own house.”
“Aaron Burr shot Alexander Hamilton. @SenatorBurr shot the moral credibility of the Republican Party,” Gaetz wrote in a later tweet.
In response to the probe, Burr’s lawyer Alice Fisher told The Post, “The law is clear that any American — including a senator — may participate in the stock market based on public information, as Senator Burr did.
“Senator Burr welcomes a thorough review of the facts in this matter, which will establish that his actions were appropriate.”
Sell-offs by three other lawmakers are also under scrutiny.
Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), who is married to New York Stock Exchange Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Sprecher, has come under similar fire over her sale of as much as $3.1 million worth of stock starting on Jan. 24, the day she attended a private senate briefing on COVID-19.
The husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) sold between $1 million and $5 illion in Allogene Therapeutics Inc. on Feb. 18 at $24 a share. It has since dropped to $20 a share. He also sold between $500,000 and $1 million in the stock on Jan. 31, when it was at $21 for a share.
Feinstein, a California Democrat, sits on the Intelligence Committee and was previously its chairwoman.
Sen. Ron Johnson sold off millions in securities of Pacur LLC, a Wisconsin-based plastics company he used to run before taking office. On March 2, Johnson, a Badger State Republican, sold between $5 million and $25 million in the company.
Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), an ex-officio member of the Intelligence Committee, sold between $180,000 and $400,000 of his stock holdings on Jan. 27.
Loeffler, Feinstein, Johnson and Inhofe have all denied any impropriety.
With wires