Posted on 03/19/2020 2:37:14 PM PDT by TigerClaws
Soon after he offered public assurances that the government was ready to battle the coronavirus, the powerful chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr, sold off a significant percentage of his stocks, unloading between $582,029 and $1.56 million of his holdings on Feb. 13 in 29 separate transactions.
As the head of the intelligence committee, Burr, a North Carolina Republican, has access to the government’s most highly classified information about threats to America’s security. His committee was receiving daily coronavirus briefings around this time, according to a Reuters story.
A week after Burr’s sales, the stock market began a sharp decline and has lost about 30% since.
On Thursday, Burr came under fire after NPR obtained a secret recording from Feb. 27, in which the lawmaker gave a VIP group at an exclusive social club a much more dire preview of the economic impact of the coronavirus than what he had told the public.
“Senator Burr filed a financial disclosure form for personal transactions made several weeks before the U.S. and financial markets showed signs of volatility due to the growing coronavirus outbreak,” his spokesperson said. “As the situation continues to evolve daily, he has been deeply concerned by the steep and sudden toll this pandemic is taking on our economy.”
Burr is not a particularly wealthy member of the Senate: Roll Call estimated his net worth at $1.7 million in 2018, indicating that the February sales significantly shaped his financial fortunes and spared him from some of the pain that many Americans are now facing.
He was one of the authors of the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act, which shapes the nation’s response to public health threats like the coronavirus. Burr’s office did not respond to requests for comment about what sort of briefing materials, if any, on the coronavirus threat Burr may have seen as chair of the intelligence committee before his selling spree.
According to the NPR report, Burr told attendees of the luncheon held at the Capitol Hill Club: “There’s one thing that I can tell you about this: It is much more aggressive in its transmission than anything that we have seen in recent history ... It is probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic.”
He warned that companies might have to curtail their employees’ travel, that schools could close and that the military might be mobilized to compensate for overwhelmed hospitals.
The luncheon was organized by the Tar Heel Circle, a club for businesses and organizations in North Carolina that are charged up to $10,000 for membership and are promised “interaction with top leaders and staff from Congress, the administration, and the private sector.”
Burr’s public comments had been considerably less dire. In a Feb. 7 op-ed that he co-authored with another senator, he assured the public that “the United States today is better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats, like the coronavirus.” He wrote, “No matter the outbreak or threat, Congress and the federal government have been vigilant in identifying gaps in its readiness efforts and improving its response capabilities.”
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Burr was one of just three senators who in 2012 opposed the bill that explicitly barred lawmakers and their staff from using nonpublic information for trades and required regular disclosure of those trades. In opposing the bill, Burr argued at the time that insider trading laws already applied to members of Congress. President Barack Obama signed the bill, known as the STOCK Act, that year.
Stock transactions of lawmakers are reported in ranges. Burr’s Feb. 13 selling spree was his largest stock selling day of at least the past 14 months, according to a ProPublica review of Senate records. Unlike his typical disclosure reports, which are a mix of sales and purchases, all of the transactions were sales.
His biggest sales included companies that are among the most vulnerable to an economic slowdown. He dumped up to $150,000 worth of shares of Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, a chain based in the United States that has lost two-thirds of its value. And he sold up to $100,000 of shares of Extended Stay America, an economy hospitality chain. Shares of that company are now worth less than half of what they did at the time Burr sold.
The assets come from accounts that are held by Burr, belong to his spouse or are jointly held.
“ Would like to see what the other Senators did with their insider info.... ”
Does that mean you’re defending Burr? You use the “everybody does it” excuse?
I’m sure Pelosi, Schumer, et al were able to avoid getting racked. Of course they will NEVER admit to insider info.
These people are mostly nitwits...self-centered nitwits.
I’m sure he wasn’t the only one. Check them all.
burr should be removed and replaced with someone not part of the deep state. Imagine what burr would say if this had been Trump JR doing this.
Why are Congressholes even allowed to participate in the stock market when they are in office? This must end.
pure corruption
guarantee he’ll be buying back in at a discount once the market hits the floor (hopefully soon)
NPR was spoon fed a secret recording
There. Fixed it.
the Congress criminals write Laws for others
as they DARE ATTACK THE ELECTED PRESIDENT.
they should have to face the Laws they make for others,
but they never do. they are NEVER accountable. NEVER.
Well, well, well...isn’t this just special. Senate Ethics Committee has some business to take care of.
Congress is exempted from insider trading. Pelosi has made a bundle doing it, among others.
House and Senate members have rigged the insider trading laws to exempt themselves. We would go to prison if we did this, as Martha Stewart did. Diane Feinstein is one of the prime insider traders in the Senate, so Burr must have been taking notes.
Didn’t Congress pass rules exempting themselves from trading on insider information?
What needs to be dumped is about 95 Senators. (I’m being generous in guessing there may be five honest ones.)
Richard Burr is RINO scum.
I did.
Other senators are not in the middle of a close re-election race. This, along with the recording of him telling large campaign donors about the seriousness of the Coronavirus pandemic weeks before telling his constituents may be enough to cost him his seat in November.
Ummm, what am I missing here?
“Found anyone in congress profiting from the Coronaviris pandemic yet?”
“Nah, chief...nothing but Democrats...no story there...”
“Wait!! I think I’ve got one! Burr...he’s a Republican...sort of, isn’t he?”
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