DOJ pushing for nearly five-year prison sentence for former GOP Rep. Chris Collins

“The government believes that a sentence at the top end of the Guidelines range is necessary in order to satisfy the objectives of [the sentence], and in particular to promote respect for the law, to provide just punishment for the offense, and to achieve general deterrence,” prosecutors wrote.

Collins, the first sitting member of Congress to endorse President Trump, resigned from the House in September shortly before he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and one count of making false statements.

The congressman was arrested in 2018 along with his son, Cameron Collins, and co-defendant Stephen Zarsky.

Collins was on the board of Australian biotechnology company Innate Immunotherapeutics and after a failed drug trial called his son to tell him to sell his shares in the company before the results were made public. Prosecutors say that Cameron Collins then passed that information to Zarsky, who also sold his shares. The company’s stock dropped 92% when news of the failure was released.

When he was contacted by investigators, Collins repeatedly lied about the insider trading.

“Collins evolving statement to the FBI was an effort to cover up the crime that he and other members of his extended family had committed ten months earlier,” prosecutors said on Monday.

They said that “in committing insider trading and later lying to federal agents to cover it up, and in continuing to actively serve in the House of Representatives during that time period, Collins came to embody the cynical idea that those in power who make the laws are not required to follow them.”

His sentencing is set for Jan. 17.