The Justice Department must publicly release a more detailed version of a 2020 search warrant executed to seize a cellphone belonging to Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) as part of its investigation into stock trades he made as the coronavirus pandemic began, a federal judge ordered Monday.
Burr and Sens. James Inhofe (R-OK) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) faced scrutiny after reports that they sold certain stocks shortly after a January 2020 Senate briefing on the emerging pandemic. Loeffler later lost her reelection bid. Burr has since declined a reelection bid, while Inhofe has announced his retirement.
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A heavily redacted search warrant and affidavit in the investigation were released in June but shed little light on the evidence obtained by the FBI in order for a judge to grant permission to seize the phone.
The Los Angeles Times sought the release of the document in court and pushed for the release of a version with more public details. In court documents, attorneys for the Justice Department argued the information should remain private because some of it concerns “extensive details of interviews with private third-party witnesses whose role in the investigation is not publicly known.”
Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell on Monday ordered the Justice Department to issue a new version with more details but still partially redacted by Sept. 5.
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The Los Angeles Times reported in May 2020 that federal agents obtained a search warrant and seized Burr’s cellphone as part of their investigation into whether the lawmaker illegally used information from congressional briefings about the virus to sell $1.65 million in stock shortly before the pandemic began in force. He was never charged with a crime related to his stock trades, and the Justice Department indicated it dropped its investigation last year.
Since the controversy, proposals to ban members from trading have gained popularity among lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
