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Dear Friend,
Demand Progress has filed a formal complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee calling for an investigation into Senator Richard Burr.
At the very same time that Senator Burr and Senator Kelly Loeffler were telling the public that the "economy is strong" and even attacking Democrats for exaggerating the danger of the coronavirus, they were dumping millions of dollars of stock holdings based on classified intelligence.1,2
Senators Burr and Loeffler are counting on us to be too wrapped up in the exploding coronavirus news cycle to take them to task — but this corruption is just too immense. Demand Progress is filing with the Senate Ethics Committee and the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a formal investigation into these senators' insider trading. We're also leading the coalition asking Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to remove Sen. Burr as chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
These senators were in a position to make a difference when it mattered. They could have led a bipartisan effort to fund an expansion of health care infrastructure or urged people to practice social distancing. They could have acted to protect Americans now being crushed by the coronavirus-driven economic collapse.
Instead they sold their stock.
The corruption is jaw-dropping. As chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr was privy to classified information about the coronavirus pandemic. He dumped between $600,000 and $1.8 million, including stock in hotel chains that has crashed over the last week.3,4
Senator Loeffler sold between $1.2 million and $3.1 million beginning on the same day she received a confidential briefing on the impending crisis. Not only did she dump stock that was just about to crash, she bought as much as $250,000 in stock in Citrix, a company that builds software for virtual offices and telecommuting.5
There are also now reports that other senators—including possibly Democrats—may have participated in similar schemes. If so, we will be equally hard on them.
As our formal complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee says, "A public office is a public trust. These facts provide grounds to believe that Senator Burr has used information provided to him in his official capacity as a Member of the United States Senate and as Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to obtain a personal pecuniary benefit. In addition, it suggests that he sought to minimize public understanding of the Coronavirus threat while accruing a financial benefit to himself."
We can’t let a crisis be a cover for our representatives to game the system. But we need resources to keep our legal work going in these troubling times.
Thanks for standing with us.
Robert Cruickshank,
Demand Progress
Sources:
1. The New York Times, "Senator Richard Burr Sold a Fortune in Stocks as G.O.P. Played Down Coronavirus Threat," March 20, 2020
2. Vanity Fair, "Oops: Senator Kelly Loeffler Dumped Millions in Stock While Downplaying Coronavirus Risks," March 20, 2020
3. Demand Progress, Request for Investigation into Senator Richard Burr," March 20, 2020
4. ProPublica, "Senator Dumped Up to $1.7 Million of Stock After Reassuring Public About Coronavirus Preparedness," March 19, 2020
5. The Daily Beast, Sen. Kelly Loeffler Dumped Millions in Stock After Coronavirus Briefing," March 19, 2020
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