Three senators are in the clear after the Justice Department closed its investigations into allegations of insider trading during the outset of the coronavirus pandemic.
But whereas Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia and James Inhofe of Oklahoma and Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California are no longer under DOJ scrutiny, the inquiry into GOP Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina remains very much alive, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
The FBI began the investigations about two months ago after news broke that the lawmakers dumped hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stocks before the stock market decline from COVID-19. At the root of the controversy was whether the senators improperly used information they learned in closed-door briefings about the threats posed by the outbreak to make timely stock sales.
Loeffler, Inhofe, and Feinstein have denied any wrongdoing, asserting that their financial advisers were the ones making trades that they only learned about later.
“Today’s clear exoneration by the Department of Justice affirms what Sen. Loeffler has said all along — she did nothing wrong,” a spokesman for Loeffler said.
The Washington Examiner also reached out to Inhofe and Feinstein for comment. The FBI had no comment when contacted.
Burr, whose phone was seized by the FBI earlier this month, also denied any impropriety, but he had a more direct role in his trading decisions, which he claims were based on news reports. Shares in companies he owned with his wife that were worth up to $1.72 million were sold in mid-February right before they would have experienced significant losses. He stepped down from his role as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee as the investigation plays out.
