Sen. Elizabeth Warren called on the Securities and Exchange Commission to look into whether President Trump tipped off associates at Mar-a-Lago before the drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
The Massachusetts Democrat sent a letter with Monday’s date to the chairman of the SEC and the chairman of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, according to the Daily Beast. The letter asks the commissions to investigate “whether there may have been any illegal trading in defense company stocks or commodities related to individuals’ advance knowledge.”
In the days prior to the successful strike, Trump was at his resort at Mar-a-Lago where he reportedly told some associates and visitors that something “big” was coming in response to Iranian aggression in the region that culminated in the killing of an American contractor.
Warren said in her letter that she wants to know if any of the attendees may have profited off of the attack, which she points out bumped defense stocks higher, including a 5% increase for Northrop Grumman and a 3.6% increase by Lockheed Martin.
“Individuals who were guests at President Trump’s resort may have obtained confidential market-moving information,” the letter says. “These private individuals … would have had the opportunity to obtain significant profits simply by being guests or members at President Trump’s private resort.”
Soleimani, 62, was killed earlier this month in a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad’s airport. Iran responded days later by firing more than a dozen short-range ballistic missiles at two Iraqi bases that house American troops.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the White House for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
