(Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

While the nation is immobilized by the coronavirus pandemic, a handful of lawmakers are defending their stock trades made more than a month before the virus took hold of the U.S. Some of those trades are drawing more scrutiny than others.

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) was the first to go on the defensive after OpenSecrets reported Thursday that he sold up to $1.7 million in stocks, including shares of hotel companies badly damaged by the coronavirus outbreak, just before the market tanked. Burr, who chairs the powerful Senate Intelligence Committee, publicly expressed confidence about the government’s response to the virus but privately warned high-profile constituents that it would be devastating.

Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) also unloaded stocks — and bought stock in a company that offers teleworking software — before the coronavirus pandemic began to seriously damage the U.S. economy, The Daily Beast reported last week. Some of Loeffler’s trades came on the same day she attended a private briefing about COVID-19.

Following those reports, political influencers ranging from conservative Fox News host Tucker Carlson to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called on the senators to resign. On Monday, Securities and Exchange Commission officials publicly warned lawmakers not to make trades based on non-public information, a crime under the 2012 STOCK Act. Burr was one of three senators to vote against that law, which also requires members of Congress to publicly report securities trades within 30 to 45 days of the transaction. Burr was sued Monday by a shareholder in a hotel company he and his wife sold stock of.

Several watchdog groups, including Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, called for a congressional investigation into whether the senators violated insider trading laws or ethics rules. The group has not called for an investigation into other lawmakers who sold stock in recent months, arguing that the evidence is much stronger for Burr and Loeffler.

“The thing that really set the two of them apart is the sudden sale of a huge amount of assets that would be affected by the pandemic, which happened after they started getting briefings about how bad it was,” said Jordan Libowitz, communications director for CREW.

Various news outlets have looped in other lawmakers who also made stock trades after the coronavirus briefing on Jan. 24. That includes Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.). When asked about senators dumping their stock during a press conference last week, President Donald Trump mentioned only Feinstein’s name and called the senators “very honorable people.”

While Burr and Loeffler dumped up to seven figures in publicly traded stock — much of which appeared to be directly related to the coronavirus outbreak — other senators’ transactions appear less questionable when scrutinized.

Johnson sold up to $25 million in his stake of a privately held Wisconsin company that he headed before moving to Washington. But Johnson sold his stake on March 2, long after the virus hit the states, and the sale had reportedly been in the works after a private equity firm made a large investment in the company.

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Feinstein holds her assets in a blind trust, meaning she cannot direct transactions. Her husband Richard Blum, a wealthy investment banker, sold stock in a cancer therapy company that gained value shortly after the sale.

Inhofe did not attend the private coronavirus briefing and was selling stocks days before the briefing took place. He has said that his stock sales are made by an investment firm. Inhofe directed his broker to slowly divest from stocks in December 2018, after he became chairman of the Armed Services Committee and after it was revealed he bought defense stocks while pushing for record defense spending.

“We know there isn’t enough evidence to require an investigation into the three of them at this point,” Libowitz said, adding that CREW would favor an investigation if new information merits it.

Burr said his investment decisions were based on public reports coming out of Asia in mid-February and indicated he directed the trades. He asked the Senate Ethics Committee to review his transactions last week.

Loeffler, whose husband heads the New York Stock Exchange, said she does not control the transactions made by her investment advisers. But she hasn’t produced documents proving she handed over full authority of her stock trades to her broker.

Other Washington figures are being scrutinized for their stock sales. Politico reported that Rep. Susan Davis (D-Calif.) unloaded her stock in airlines and cruises in early February. Aides to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) also traded stocks strongly affected by the outbreak.

Over the next month, lawmakers will likely report more stock sales as required under the STOCK Act. Good government groups like CREW are asking Congress to ban members from trading stock or make them divest from their assets upon taking office. They say this measure would help crack down on corruption and restore Americans’ faith in elected officials.

House Democrats on Monday introduced a bill that would bar lawmakers and their staff from trading stocks. Similar legislation has been proposed in previous years but never gained much traction on Capitol Hill, even after Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) pleaded guilty to insider trading charges last year.



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