Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney who refused to step down and was fired by President Trump last week, was investigating Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price’s stock trades, according to a report.
ProPublica reported Friday that Bharara was investigating Price’s controversial trades that landed him in hot water during his confirmation hearings. When he was a House member, Price traded hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stock in health-related companies while he was voting on and sponsoring legislation about the health industry.
Price said his trades were legal, but Democrats said he was using his office to enrich himself. He was accused of violating a 2012 law that prevents lawmakers from using nonpublic information to enrich themselves and requires public disclosure of stock trades.
Bharara was investigating Price when he was dismissed. Bharara had said in November that Trump agreed to keep him on as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, but Trump reversed course last week. It’s unknown what prompted the change.
Bharara refused to offer his resignation and instead forced Trump’s hand. He confirmed over the weekend that he was fired from his post. Bharara insinuated that the dismissal was political in nature, but the White House said it was a standard move for new administrations to ask for the resignations of all politically appointed U.S. attorneys.
