WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st March, 2020) The Justice Department opened an investigation of Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr and possibly other lawmakers over stock transactions prior to a sharp stock market plunge stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, CNN reported.
The inquiry, which is still in its early stages and being done in coordination with the Securities and Exchange Commission, has so far included outreach from the FBI to at least one lawmaker, Burr, seeking information about the trades, the network reported Monday based on unnamed sources.
Burr, the North Carolina Republican who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, has previously said that he relied only on public news reports as he decided to sell between $628,000 and $1.7 million in stocks on February 13. Earlier this month, he asked the Senate Ethics Committee to review the trades.
There's no indication that any of the sales, including Burr's, broke any laws or ran afoul of Senate rules. But the sales have come under fire after senators received closed-door briefings about the virus over the past several weeks � before the market began trending downward. It is routine for the FBI and SEC to review stock trades when there is public question about their propriety, according to the report.
Several other senators from both parties also sold stock ahead of the market downturn, including Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein and Republican Senators Kelly Loeffler and Jim Inhofe.
Feinstein's stocks were sold by her husband, according to earlier filings with the Senate, and Feinstein has said she has no role in her husband's financial decisions. Loeffler and Inhofe have said their stocks were sold by a third-party managers and that they are not involved in investment decisions.
In addition, neither Loeffler nor Inhofe have been contacted by the FBI about their stock sales, according to comments from their respective offices, the report said.
