The Justice Department’s investigation into Sen. Richard Burr’s (R-NC) pre-coronavirus stock trading activity continues, despite dropping similar stock sale probes into three other senators.
According to a Wall Street Journal report on Tuesday, federal prosecutors are informing attorneys who represent Sens. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), Jim Inhofe (R-OK) and Diane Feinstein (D-CA) that the Justice Department is closing its investigations into their trading that began two months ago.
The FBI launched the investigations following reports that several members of Congress, their spouses or their investment advisers sold hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock upon attending closed-door briefings that discussed pandemic-related threats.
“Today’s clear exoneration by the Department of Justice affirms what Senator Loeffler has said all along—she did nothing wrong,” a spokesperson for Loeffler said in a statement shared with TPM. “This was a politically-motivated attack shamelessly promoted by the fake news media and her political opponents.”
Earlier this month, Burr’s cellphone was seized as part of a criminal investigation. Burr then temporarily stepped down as the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee the next day.
All four senators have denied any wrongdoing related to selling off their shares prior to the stock market crash as a result of the spread of COVID-19.
Read the Wall Street Journal’s report here.
Jesus. The motherfucking Putinist gangsters aren’t even trying to hide it. They’re making it clear that the rule of law is dead and under authoritarian rules, sycophancy and bribes to Tremendous Leader will get you immunity and maintaining even the barest and most compartmentalized pretense of integrity that causes Tremendous Leader the slightest narcissistic injury will get you indicted.
Loeffler’s dirty. Could it be that DoJ has lumped her in with Feinstein, who, AFAIK, was not managing her stocks directly, in this announcement to confound their cutting Loeffler loose? A kind of “bipartisan” exoneration?
The sad thing is that we’ve reached a space where this is a real possibility.
The only way to check it is through an investigation by this administration’s successor.
Burr will walk away without charges also. They will wait and make enough noise to make it appear something may come of the investigation, but very doubtful. He is a Republican after all. And he’s still a Senator they may need down the road a bit.
I did say that restaurant in Colorado wanted to end up in court. Now they will:
My first thought exactly. I think it’s a reasonable assumption of a corrupt DOJ.