I’m sorry to be this crude, but some people are simply pigs. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The largest transactions — and the most politically problematic — involve $18.7 million in sales of Intercontinental Exchange stock in three separate deals dated Feb. 26 and March 11. [Senator Kelly] Loeffler is a former executive with ICE, and her husband, Jeff Sprecher, is the CEO of the company, which owns the New York Stock Exchange among other financial marketplaces.

During the same time period reflected on reports filed late Tuesday, the couple also sold shares in retail stores such as Lululemon and T.J. Maxx and invested in a company that makes COVID-19 protective garments. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution got the first look at these reports, covering mid-February through mid-March and shedding new light on Loeffler’s financial transactions during the pandemic. Previous reports — which have put Loeffler in the national spotlight — covered her trading during the first six weeks of 2020.



She’s rich. He’s rich. She’s a U.S. senator. He runs the damn NYSE. Amazing.

The newer stock sales came as the broader markets were diving, and they are likely to fuel allegations that Georgia’s new senator used her insider knowledge about the severity of the pandemic to dump holdings while simultaneously releasing statements about the strength of the American economy and complimenting President Donald Trump on his response. The STOCK Act, a law that went into effect in 2012, makes it illegal for senators to use inside information for financial gain.

You think?

The defense seems to be that these are rich people whose finances are too complicated for we unfrozen caveman citizens to understand. For example, they maintain that an investment firm handles the transactions and that all that the couple does is set a general investment strategy. (I’m sure that, if the SEC comes knock-knock-knocking at the investment firm’s door, nobody there will give up the Loefflers to save their own hides.) Left unanswered is the question of why a sitting senator—and her husband—would court trouble by engaging in individual stock transactions at all. Silly question. Because the laws and ethics are for us, not them.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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