US Senator Kelly Loeffler (L), R-GA, and husband Jeffrey Sprecher, CEO of Intercontinental Exchange and Chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, on January 6, 2019. Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images

Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia on Wednesday said that she and her CEO husband Jeff Sprecher will liquidate their individual stock share positions and related options after weeks of criticism of the couple for selling millions of dollars in stock amid the coronavirus pandemic. Loeffler on Wednesday reiterated her defense of the prior stock sales as legally and ethically proper, and her claim that the couple's trading was handled by third parties authorized to buy and sell securities without telling the couple in advance. And she said that she and Sprecher, who is the chairman and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, the company that owns the New York Stock Exchange, are selling off the individual shares not because she had to, but because she wanted to avoid further controversy. Loeffler, who is the richest member of the Senate, said in a Wall Street Journal opinion page article announcing her decision that her stock holdings would be converted to mutual funds and exchange-traded funds by third-party advisors who handle her investments. That Journal article carries the headline, "I Never Traded on Confidential Coronavirus Information," a reference to the fact that Loeffler's and Sprecher's trades came after the senator was briefed with other lawmakers about the virus by federal health officials. In a statement, Loeffler said, "Amid this health crisis, the temptation to circulate lies and misinformation is too great for the media and my political opponents."

"That is why I'm taking steps to remove this temptation so that we can turn our focus back to where it belongs: on combating COVID-19 and restoring our country to health and economic recovery." The liquidation will be done by the end of the week, said a spokesman for Loeffler. The senator was appointed to her Senate seat by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp at the beginning of January after then-Sen. Johnny Isakson said he was resigning for health reasons before his term expired. Loeffler faces multiple challengers in next fall's special election for her Senate seat, notably among them from GOP Rep. Doug Collins. Collins has raised the controversy over Loeffler's stock trades in his campaign. While there has not been recent public polling in the race, a recent survey commissioned by the Collins campaign after the fallout over Loeffler's stock trades showed Collins with a huge lead, of 23 percentage points, over the senator. "That's not a real poll. It's as fake as their attacks," Loeffler's spokesman told CNBC on Wednesday. Before the Collins-sponsored poll, surveys conducted by the University of Georgia, as reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, showed the two Republicans in a virtual dead heat. Those polls were conducted before Loeffler and her husband Sprecher came under fire last month after it was revealed in Senate disclosure filings that that they had sold up to $3 million worth of equities. Those sales came in advance of a massive drop in stock market indexes in reaction to the spread of the coronavirus in the United States. The couple's sales may have insulated them from losses in the stocks. The trades came after Loeffler was privately briefed by federal officials about the spread and impact of the coronavirus. Loeffler's trading as well as other similar stock sales and purchases by other lawmakers, renewed calls by some observers to bar members of Congress from owning stock in individual companies. Public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission reveal that in addition to those trades, Sprecher on Feb. 26 sold $3.5 million in shares of Intercontinental Exchange, or ICE, at an average price of $93.42 each. Other SEC filings show that Sprecher and Loeffler "also sold $15.3 million worth of ICE shares on March 11, at an average price of around $87 per share."