At least three antigay Republican senators and one Democrat sold millions of dollars worth of stock shortly after receiving closed-door briefings about the impending coronavirus crisis.
Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, and Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma have all been accused of violating the STOCK Act, a law that bars members of Congress from making financial trades using nonpublic information. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California is also implicated.
Burr is the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. As such, he is privy to the government’s most highly classified information, including nonpublic information about the coronavirus.
ProPublica reports:
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Soon after he offered public assurances that the government was ready to battle the coronavirus, the powerful chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr, sold off a significant percentage of his stocks, unloading between $628,000 and $1.72 million of his holdings on Feb. 13 in 33 separate transactions. … A week after Burr’s sales, the stock market began a sharp decline and has lost about 30% since.
Not only did Burr–who holds a 0% rating with the HRC for opposing same-sex marriage, gay adoption and trans rights–unload his own stocks, but he also warned a group of wealthy constituents that they should do the same.
The private conversation was made public when NPR got its hands on a secret recording from a February 27 luncheon, during which Barr gave an wealthy group at an exclusive social club.
Burr has responded to the story by calling it a “tabloid-style hit piece.”
In a tabloid-style hit piece today, NPR knowingly and irresponsibly misrepresented a speech I gave last month about the coronavirus threat.
Let me set the record straight. 1/
— Richard Burr (@SenatorBurr) March 19, 2020
As for Loeffler, her husband, Jeffrey C. Sprecher, is chairman of the New York Stock Exchange.
She sold $355,000 worth of their jointly-owned stocks between January 24 and 30, the day her committee, the Senate Health Committee, received a briefing on the coronavirus, and another $890,000 worth between February 5 and 14, just days after the first confirmed cases of coronavirus appeared in the U.S., but nearly two weeks before community spread was confirmed.
Loeffler, who is a vocal supporter of “religious freedom” laws, is calling the accusations “a ridiculous and baseless attack.”
This is a ridiculous and baseless attack. I do not make investment decisions for my portfolio. Investment decisions are made by multiple third-party advisors without my or my husband's knowledge or involvement.
— Senator Kelly Loeffler (@SenatorLoeffler) March 20, 2020
Meanwhile, Inhofe, who opposes same-sex marriage, sold at least $180,000 in stocks on January 27, just days after the Senate’s coronavirus briefing, plus another $5,000 days before the stock market crashed. He says the sales were made by his financial advisor “without my consultation or awareness.”
And Feinstein, one the longest-tenured Senate Democrats and a longtime advocate for LGBTQ rights, sold $500,000 on January 31, plus another $1 million on February 18. Her spokesperson, Tom Mentzer, tells The New York Times that she had absolutely nothing to do with the decisions to sell her stocks.
“All of Senator Feinstein’s assets are in a blind trust,” Mentzer says. “She has no involvement in her husband’s financial decisions.”
Jared MacBride
So what? So did Dianne Feinstein. And what does being “anti-gay” have to do with selling stocks? Find something else to get triggered about.
Chrisk
So what? Well, for one it’s called insider trading which is against the law. Being anti-gay shows just what a self-righteous hypocrite and POS that they are.
blackhook
Feinstein’s sales have been investigated & have been found to be NOT insider trading. She wasn’t at the secret security briefing that the other two traitorous Republican Senators were. Burr & Loeffler should be prosecuted & sent to prison for taking illegal advantage of the worst world crisis since WWII.
Chrisk
You gotta love how their distancing themselves. It wasn’t me. It was my financial adviser who did it behind my back. Hmm….wonder what little birdy gave your adviser that idea?
Cam
What was also left out was the fact that Loeffler not only dumped millions in stock while the stock market was still high, and after she heard the briefing about the Covid 19. But she BOUGHT a huge amount of stock in a company that produces products for use by people teleworking.
Martha Stewart when to jail for $60,000 of insider trading. These Senators were supporting the notion that COVID-19 was not dangerous, while they were engaging in millions of dollars of insider trading.
They need to go to jail for AT LEAST as long as Martha Stewart.
Chrisk
Oh and you mean to tell me that your “third party advisers” just dumped millions of your stock and left you completely out of the loop? I’d fire their asses first for not informing me. Then I’d come to and hire them back with a bonus for the great work.$$$ Lol
Of coarse if that’s to be believed. Hint..it’s not.
cubcmh
Exactly. Except the information was limited to a finite number of people. So if their financial advisors knew about it, where did they get the information? Very disappointed in Feinstein. If she’s not guilty, she’s shown a significant lack of judgment.
loren_1955
Wasn’t that the same defense used by Martha Stewart, my financial advisor said to sell? There is a reality. Senate and Congress members are exempt from insider trading. They are a special class of Citizen that are above the law. So sad, just more signs that political leadership is about corruption, self interest, and definitely not for country or citizens.
Bob LaBlah
They knew how bad it was going to get and I’ll bet those dollar figures are the figures that could be found. I’m sure there are millions more involved. What gets me is how long its taking them to release that $1200 check. People live from paycheck to paycheck with less than three hundred dollars in the bank.
trsxyz
I am not sure why the anti-gay link is being made here. I am also on the fence about whether it’s really a problem that they sold stock… Anyone of us, knowing what we know right now, would probably have done the same thing. Is it really “insider trading” that they attended these COVID-19 meetings as part of their job? And by the way, we had all heard about possible COVID-19 scenarios long before the market started to tank, and could have gotten out earlier as well.
Cam
Enough with these right wing troll accounts trying to come in here and excuse not just bigotry but criminality.
Martha Stewart when to jail for $60,000 dollars of insider trading and she wasn’t supporting lies to the American people claiming COVID-19 wasn’t dangerous, while they were dumping stocks and investing in telework stocks.
Congresspeople are in a position to pass an influence laws that will effect the stock market, they could literally harm the country, so they can buy into stocks that will go up because of their actions. You trolls need to know when to pick your battles, trying to defend this exposes you.
Den
Cannot say for the other two, but Burr specifically voted against the law that requires legislators to keep their assets in blind trust to prevent this kind of insider trading. The three republicans are corrupt, and one (Inhofe) is verifiably an idiot.
He may well think his opposition places him above the law.
Disappointed about Feinstein, from whom I expect more integrity.
Kangol2
All of them are disgusting, and that includes Feinstein, but Burr and Loeffler are particularly vile, since Burr chairs the Senate Intelligence committee and really should have warned ALL Americans, not just his wealthy friends and supporters, and Loeffler is married to the head of the New York Stock Exchange, so she had to know how bad and greedy this would look.
toronto
Sadly, if you read the amendment to the STOCK act, it is not illegal for senators to benefit from insider trading.
winemaker
When i heard this on the news that good ole ‘fart’ faced dianne feinstein was involved, i didn’t surprise. This lying his old hag is a thief, has been a thief and always will be a thief. Saying she had no idea of the stock market taking a dive and coincidentally selling over $500 thousand dollars worth of stock, don’t believe it and most thinking people don’t believe it either. She is for herself and only for herself and if you could see San Francisco today you’d see how much she ‘cares’ for San Francisco and California, NOT! And the outrageous thing, if anyone else did this, they’d spend some hard time in a federal; prison. Gee in America i thought everyone was supposed to be equal and the law applied to everyone. Some America