Tag: senate intelligence committee
Senator Richard Burr (R-NC)

Sen. Burr Gives Up Intel Committee Chair As FBI Probe Intensifies

Reprinted with permission from ProPublica.

Sen. Richard Burr will be stepping aside as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee during the investigation into his stock trades, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Thursday.

“Senator Burr contacted me this morning to inform me of his decision," McConnell wrote in a statement. “We agreed that this decision would be in the best interests of the committee and will be effective at the end of the day tomorrow."

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Caught Dumping Stocks, Sen. Burr Requests Ethics Investigation

Caught Dumping Stocks, Sen. Burr Requests Ethics Investigation

Reprinted with permission from ProPublica.

Sen. Richard Burr, the powerful chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, requested a Senate Ethics Committee investigation into his stock trading, a day after ProPublica and the Center for Responsive Politics reported that he had dumped significant amounts of shares before the market crash triggered by the coronavirus outbreak.

Burr unloaded between $628,000 and $1.72 million of his holdings on Feb. 13 in 33 separate transactions, a significant portion of his total stock holdings. The sales came soon after he offered public assurances that the government was ready to battle the coronavirus.

On Twitter Friday morning, Burr defended the sell-off. “I relied solely on public news reports to guide my decision regarding the sale of stocks on February 13,” he said. “Specifically, I closely followed CNBC’s daily health and science reporting out of its Asia bureaus at the time.” He asked for the ethics committee to “open a complete review of the matter with full transparency.”

The ethics committee can recommend disciplinary action against lawmakers and refer potentially criminal violations to law enforcement. But it has been criticized for being too lax. It is illegal for members of Congress to trade shares on non-public information they gather in the course of their work. But cases are rare because proving that a politician relied on such non-public information is difficult.

As the head of the intelligence committee, Burr, a North Carolina Republican, has access to the government’s most highly classified information about threats to America’s security. His committee was receiving daily coronavirus briefings around this time, according to a Reuters story.

A week after Burr’s sales, the stock market began a sharp decline and has lost about 30% since.

After the story published, Burr faced a firestorm of criticism from both sides of the aisle. Former Obama administration officials along with prominent Trump allies blasted Burr’s stock sales. Calls for his resignation came from both ends of the political spectrum, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and the Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

Thom Tillis, North Carolina’s junior senator, said on Friday that a review by the ethics committee was warranted. “Given the circumstances, Senator Burr owes North Carolinians an explanation,” Tillis, a Republican, wrote.

Throughout the day Thursday, news outlets reported instances of other lawmakers who also sold off stock before the market tanked.

The Daily Beast reported that Kelly Loeffler, a Georgia Republican who took office this year, sold off stocks jointly owned with her husband worth between $1.2 million and $3.1 million in the weeks after senators received a private briefing on the coronavirus from the Trump administration. Loeffler’s husband is the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange. In response, Loeffler posted on Twitter early on Friday morning that “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.”

Other senators who sold off stocks this year include Jim Inhofe, the Oklahoma Republican who chairs the Armed Services Committee. Reports with the Senate show that Inhofe sold shares worth between $380,000 and $830,000 both before and after the briefing, which Inhofe did not attend. “I do not have any involvement in my investment decisions,” Inhofe posted on Twitter on Friday. “In December 2018, shortly after becoming chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I instructed my financial advisor to move me out of all stocks and into mutual funds to avoid any appearance of controversy.”

Reports of sales by other senators surfaced as well. But those sales were less anomalous or noteworthy. Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, reported selling shares in a private firm he ran, Pacur LLC, worth between $5 million and $25 million. That transaction took place on March 2. The deal had apparently been in the works for some time and had been announced on Feb. 11.

In another case generating headlines, filings also show large sales reported by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who serves on the Intelligence Committee alongside Burr. But they only involved one stock. Feinstein’s husband, Richard Blum, sold off shares in Allogene Therapeutics Inc. worth between $1.5 million and $6 million on Jan. 31 and Feb. 18. Blum is a frequent stock trader, according to Feinstein’s financial disclosures, and appears to have taken a loss on at least a portion of the shares he sold.

Asked about senators making stock trades at a press conference Friday, President Trump said “I’m not aware of it, I saw some names.”

He added, “I find them to all be very honorable people, that’s all I know and they said they did nothing wrong.” The only senator he addressed by name was Dianne Feinstein, and complained that reporters at the press conference were not noting her stock trades.

By the standards of the Senate, Burr is not particularly wealthy: Roll Call estimated his net worth at $1.7 million in 2018, indicating that the February sales significantly shaped his financial fortunes and spared him from some of the pain that many Americans are now facing.

He was one of the authors of the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act, which shapes the nation’s response to public health threats like the coronavirus. Burr’s office did not respond to requests for comment about what sort of briefing materials, if any, on the coronavirus threat Burr may have seen as chair of the intelligence committee before his selling spree.

According to NPR, Burr had given a VIP group at an exclusive social club a much more gloomy preview of the economic impact of the coronavirus than what he had told the public, saying it might close schools and impede business travel. In response, Burr said the NPR report was misleading.

Burr’s public comments had been considerably more positive. In a Feb. 7 op-ed that he co-authored with another senator, he assured the public that “the United States today is better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats, like the coronavirus.” He wrote, “No matter the outbreak or threat, Congress and the federal government have been vigilant in identifying gaps in its readiness efforts and improving its response capabilities.”

Members of Congress are required by law to disclose their securities transactions.

Burr was one of just three senators who in 2012 opposed the bill that explicitly barred lawmakers and their staff from using nonpublic information for trades and required regular disclosure of those trades. In opposing the bill, Burr argued at the time that insider trading laws already applied to members of Congress. President Barack Obama signed the bill, known as the STOCK Act, that year.

Stock transactions of lawmakers are reported in ranges. Burr’s Feb. 13 selling spree was his largest stock selling day of at least the past 14 months, according to a ProPublica review of Senate records. Unlike his typical disclosure reports, which are a mix of sales and purchases, all of the transactions were sales.

His biggest sales included companies that are among the most vulnerable to an economic slowdown. He dumped up to $150,000 worth of shares of Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, a chain based in the United States that has lost two-thirds of its value. And he sold up to $100,000 of shares of Extended Stay America, an economy hospitality chain. Shares of that company are now worth less than half of what they did at the time Burr sold.

The assets come from accounts that are held by Burr, belong to his spouse or are jointly held.

IMAGE: Senator Richard Burr (R-NC).

GOP Rigged Rules To Ensure Only A Republican Can Replace Burr

GOP Rigged Rules To Ensure Only A Republican Can Replace Burr

Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) is facing calls to resign after news broke that he dumped as much as $1.7 million in stock ahead of the market’s steep downturn following the coronavirus outbreak.

Burr chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee — which was receiving daily classified briefings about the virus at the time of his sale.

Critics say that makes Burr’s sale unethical, as he possibly used information the rest of the public did not have in order to save himself money amid the stock market slide.

It’s unclear whether Burr will resign — or face any consequences for his actions.

In trying to excuse Burr’s actions, his spokesperson said in a statement to Politico, “Senator Burr filed a financial disclosure form for personal transactions made several weeks before the U.S. and financial markets showed signs of volatility due to the growing coronavirus outbreak.”

Of course, that explanation is exactly what is drawing criticism.

A poll from the progressive organization Data for Progress showed that 50 percent of North Carolina voters want Burr to resign.

If Burr resigned, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper would pick his replacement. But unlike many states, where the governor is free to choose whomever they want to fill the vacancy, Cooper would be forced to pick a Republican.

That’s because in 2018, the state’s GOP-controlled legislature changed the law to tie Cooper’s hand.

According to the law:

The governor shall appoint from a list of three persons recommended by the state executive committee of the political party with which the vacating member was affiliated when elected if that party executive committee makes recommendations within 30 days of the occurrence of the vacancy.

That means that Cooper would be given a list of three Republicans to choose from.

The law change was one of a handful of ways the state’s Republican legislators tried to strip Cooper of power after he won in 2016.

Among other things, the legislature weakened Cooper’s control of state elections, including trying to ensure that Republicans would chair state elections boards in every election year. That law in particular was ruled unconstitutional.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.

Senate Intelligence Committee Makes Deal For Trump Jr. Testimony

Senate Intelligence Committee Makes Deal For Trump Jr. Testimony

Donald Trump Jr. agreed on Tuesday to testify again before the Senate Intelligence Committee, following threats to ignore a committee subpoena. Negotiations between the committee and lawyers representing the president’s eldest son led to a deal that would allow him to testify in private for no longer than four hours.

Moreover, the committee’s questions will be circumscribed by a list of agreed topics negotiated in advance of Trump Jr.’s testimony. According to the New York Times, the committee also promised that regardless of his responses, he will not be called to testify again — even though he is suspected of giving false responses in his initial appearance.

Trump Jr.’s consent to a second interview with the Intelligence Committee represented a partial victory for its chair, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), who has endured a massive public repudiation by his fellow Republicans. President Trump has repeatedly attacked Burr. And in an unprecedented outbreak of lawlessness, several Republican elected officials, including Senate Judiciary Committee chair Lindsey Graham, had urged Trump Jr. to defy Burr’s subpoena.

When he does appear, behind closed doors, the first son will face questions on six discrete topics, reports the Washington Post. Those subject areas include his participation in the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with several Russians to obtain “dirt” on Hillary Clinton; his father’s knowledge of that meeting; and the Trump Organization’s efforts, before and during the 2016 campaign, to build a Trump Tower Moscow.

Democrats suspect that Trump Jr. lied about all of those matters, even though the special counsel chose not to prosecute him for perjury.

Meanwhile the House Intelligence Committee is investigating possible obstruction of justice by attorneys for President Trump, including Rudolph Giuliani. Encouraging such suspicions was their participation in dangling pardons for witnesses in the Mueller probe, including former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.

IMAGE: Donald Trump Jr.