Knoxville News Sentinel

NASHVILLE - Sen. Bob Corker’s business dealings and his short stature apparently hurt his chances for appointment to President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet, according to The Daily Caller.

The online news service, generally oriented toward conservative causes, reported obtaining internal Trump campaign documents that raised questions about whether Corker used insider information in business and stock deals.

As for Corker’s height, The Daily Caller reported that “two sources close to the Trump transition team” said that Trump did not want a short person – the article cites reports that the senator is stands 5 feet, 7 inches - to become U.S. secretary of state.

Corker was widely acknowledged as among four top contenders for appointment to the position, but Trump ultimately chose ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, who is somewhat taller than Corker.

One documents on business dealings is headlined, “Bob Corker: Mixing Public Service with Personal Profit.” It goes into reports on Corker investments into companies owned by donors and friends, including a Wall Street Journal article earlier this year saying that the FBI and Securities Exchange Commission are looking into transactions involving CBL & Associates, a Chattanooga real estate company that the senator has been involved with.

“While they have not commented publicly on the case, investigators appear to be looking into whether Corker’s trades may have been based on inside information,” the document says.

“This error-ridden document produced by Wall Street hedge funds seeking to discredit the work Senator Corker is doing to protect taxpayers and reform our housing finance system has been floating around D.C. since early last year, long before he was considered for Vice President or Secretary of State," Corker spokesman Micah Johnson said in a statement released Monday afternoon.

"Officials at the highest level of the Trump campaign and transition were well aware of the nefarious activity and false accusations begin generated by these shady actors, which in no way dissuaded them from considering Senator Corker for either of these positions. They also know that there are absolutely no investigations underway.”

Corker filed amendments to his financial disclosures as a federal officeholder following the Wall Street Journal reports, providing additional information on his holdings that a spokesman at the time said were inadvertently omitted in an initial report.

A Washington group called Campaign for Accountability has filed complaints with the Senate Ethics Committee that involve some of the allegations, the latest branded in March by a Corker spokesman as "yet another baseless accusation by this political special interest group.”

The quoted document says, “Some of the transactions in question involved CBL, but they were not the only firm with long ties to Corker where he appears to have hidden the degree of his involvement” and there is a “concern” that Corker’s investments into two Chattanooga hedge funds founded by donors and friends of Corker were based on ”privileged information that Corker obtains as a Senator.”

The document also questions Corker’s relationship with Chattanooga businessman Henry Luken, who bought “highly leveraged assets” from Corker at a critical time and the purchase of Chattanooga property by a Corker staff member days before Volkswagen announced it was building a major plant six6 miles away.