While Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) may hope his stock sales pre-coronavirus crash gets swept under the rug, one prominent Republican congressman revives the calls for action.
This comes days after Burr was accused of selling $1.7 million dollars in stock after receiving a private briefing about the threat coronavirus posed to the country.
Gaetz is a big ally of Donald Trump and an outspoken member of the Republican party, so the criticism coming from him may show there is bi-partisan support to open an investigation. Fox News’ Tucker Carlson also bashed the chairman of the Intelligence Committee for the shady sale saying if this is true, Burr “must resign from the Senate and face prosecution for insider trading.”
Burr refused to answer CNN’s questions earlier on Monday about the controversial stock sales. When asked whether he could see that there would be an optics problem with the chairman of the intelligence committee making such sales, Burr replied, “I’ll leave that up the Ethics Committee.”
Gaetz’s tweet said that treament was “not fair” compared to the backlash Hill faced. In October, the one-term California Democrat resigned from Congress days after she admitted to having an inappropriate relationship with a campaign staffer before coming into office.
Burr’s troubles could extend beyond Congress as well. Politico reports:
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) is being sued after selling shares in a hotel company while possessing confidential information about the potential impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Alan Jacobson, a shareholder in Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, sued Burr in federal court on Monday, alleging that the senator used private information to motivate a mass liquidation of his assets. It is illegal for senators to use nonpublic information in conducting securities exchanges.