Sen. Kelly Loeffler Defends Shady Stock Dump After Private Senate Meeting On Coronavirus

Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) takes her seat for a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on March 3, 2020. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
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Early Friday morning, Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) denied any wrongdoing when she sold millions of dollars worth of stocks soon after a closed-door briefing with the entire Senate on the COVID-19 pandemic, which has wreaked havoc on the stock market.

“This is a ridiculous and baseless attack,” the senator said in a statement after the Daily Beast reported on the sales. “I do not make investment decisions for my portfolio. Investment decisions are made by multiple third-party advisors without my or my husband’s knowledge or involvement.”

Loeffler sits on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which held a private briefing with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the coronavirus for all senators on January 24.

The Daily Beast reported on Thursday that she sold a stock valued at $50,001 and $100,000 that same day, and she proceeded to make 26 stock transactions in sales until mid-February.

News of the senator’s stock sales came shortly after ProPublica published a report on fellow GOP colleague Sen. Richard Burr’s (R-NC) astonishing stock dump of $1.6 million on February 13. As the chair of Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Burr received frequent briefings on the coronavirus outbreak, and his committee had co-hosted the all-Senate briefing on January 24.

On Friday, Burr issued a statement claiming he had relied “solely on public news reports” when he chose to sell the stocks.

“Specifically, I closely followed CNBC’s daily health and science reporting out of its Asia bureaus at the time,” he said.

“Understanding the assumption many could make in hindsight however, I spoke this morning with the chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee and asked him to open a complete review of the matter with full transparency,” the North Carolina Republican added.

Notable Replies

  1. “Senator Burr filed a financial disclosure form for personal transactions made several weeks before the U.S. and financial markets showed signs of volatility due to the growing coronavirus outbreak,” a spokesperson for the North Carolina Republican said.

    Yes. That frequently happens when you have information that the markets don’t have.

  2. Yeah, he did it. Whaddaya gonna do about it?

  3. As a former Enforcement attorney with the SEC, the key question here is whether the Senator had any input (direct or indirect) in the decision by her financial advisors to sell. Ask Martha Stewart.

  4. Avatar for dv01 dv01 says:

    Not a good look. You’ve got a problem when even a turd like Tucker Carlson is calling for your resignation.

  5. “I do not make investment decisions for my portfolio. Investment decisions are made by multiple third-party advisors without my or my husband’s knowledge or involvement.”

    You know, except that call I made after the Coronavirus briefing . . . Nothing to see here.

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