1/6 .@TheJusticeDept is investigating stock selloffs by GOP Sen. Richard Burr just before the market took a nose dive in Feb due to #coronavirus. Access to inside information that could benefit lawmakers financially also caused an uproar after the 2008 financial meltdown.
2/6 At that time Congressional lawmakers were exempt from insider trading laws. In a @60Minutes report, one expert said: “They were getting out of the market before the rest of America really knew what was going on.”
3/6 That led to the Stock Act, a bill sponsored by then-Sen. Joseph Lieberman that made it illegal for members of Congress to profit from inside information. #LessonsFromHistory
4/6 Only five members of Congress voted against the bill, among them Senator Burr. President Obama signed the bill into law in April 2012.
vimeo.com/399213503/448b…
5/6 .@washingtonpost reported that Sen Burr’s trades in February were “the largest number of stocks he had sold in one day since at least 2016, records show.”
6/6 News reports say it is not clear whether the Justice Department probe includes stock trading by other senators and House members that were made before the market downturn.
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