Katie Shepherd, The Washington Post
Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., opts for a beard and Tar Heels mask.
The FBI had executed a warrant and seized the cellphone of Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., late Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times reported, escalating the investigation into whether Burr used information he obtained as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee to sell a significant share of his stocks before the coronavirus outbreak upended the markets.
In the report published late Wednesday, the Times quoted an unnamed law enforcement official who said that Burr turned over his phone to FBI agents after they served a warrant at his Washington area home. A second official told the Times a search warrant was also used to collect information from Burr's iCloud account. Some of the data collected from Apple was used as evidence to obtain the warrant for Burr's phone, the Times reported.
Caitlin Carroll, a spokeswoman for Burr, declined to comment to The Washington Post. An FBI spokeswoman said the agency declined to comment "in keeping with our standard practice of neither confirming nor denying the existence of our investigations."
The Justice Department has been investigating stock trades made by Burr since March, as The Washington Post has reported. The inquiry followed a review of public disclosures, first reported by the Center for Responsive Politics and ProPublica, that showed Burr and his wife sold 33 stocks worth between $628,033 and $1.72 million, including many in industries hard-hit by the pandemic, including hotels and restaurants and shipping. Burr reportedly received daily coronavirus briefings in the weeks leading up to the February sell-off. His brother-in-law also sold off significant shares in February, ProPublica reported last week.
In early February, Burr co-wrote a Fox News op-ed in which he reassured Americans that "the United States today is better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats, like the coronavirus." On Feb. 13, he sold his stocks.
From late February through mid-March, the stock market crashed as the coronavirus reached the U.S. and states began implementing stay-at-home orders that hampered or shut down large segments of the economy.
Burr has denied wrongdoing and asked for the Senate Ethics Committee to review his financial dealings.
Members of Congress were barred from using information not available to the general public in 2012. Burr was one of just three senators who voted against the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, which extended insider trading regulations to U.S. senators and representatives. At the time, he called the legislation "ludicrous."
The execution of a search warrant against a sitting member of Congress is a significant step for the FBI and Justice Department to take in the investigation into his stock sales.
"This is a very, very big deal," Preet Bharara, the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, tweeted Wednesday night. "This is not something the FBI or DOJ does lightly. It requires layers of review, the blessing of a judge, and consideration of severe reputational harm to a sitting US Senator."
A search warrant indicates that investigators were able to show to the satisfaction of a federal judge or magistrate probable cause to suspect a crime occurred and an expectation of the search yielding evidence.
"Investigation of Sen. Richard Burr just got serious," University of Michigan law professor and former U.S. Attorney for Michigan Barb McQuade tweeted.
Burr was not the only senator accused of abusing coronavirus-related information that was not available to the general public to make personal financial decisions. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., also came under fire after the Daily Beast reported that she had sold a significant share of stocks in January after attending the same briefings as Burr. Loeffler has denied playing an active role in the sales and called outcry over the transactions a "political attack."
Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and James Inhofe, R-Okla., also drew public scrutiny for selling stocks around the same time.
Some legal observers noted there would be a potential disparity if Burr was being investigated but not other members of Congress who engaged in similar trades, particularly Loffler. After the Justice Department's investigation into Burr became public, a Loeffler spokesman said she had not been contacted by federal law enforcement officials.
Burr and President Donald Trump have had a tense relationship at times.
Last year, the Senate Intelligence Committee that Burr chairs issued a subpoena against Donald Trump Jr., as part of an investigation of potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives. The subpoena was inconvenient for the Republicans defending the president, who were trying to dismiss the investigation as a politically-motivated hit job. Burr also developed a cooperative and collegial relationship with a Democrat, ranking committee member Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, a practice frowned upon by Trump loyalists.
"A lot more is needed to develop the record, but I do think this is a moment to be seriously on guard for DOJ being used to carry out political retribution," tweeted Susan Hennessey, executive editor at Lawfare and CNN legal analyst. "Serving a warrant on a senator is a very significant and rapid escalation and Trump has long had an axe to grind with Burr."
As recently as Monday, Trump has retweeted criticism of Burr over the Russia investigation.
"This may be entirely legit," tweeted Norman Ornstein, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. "But it tells a lot about our extraordinary times that Burr and not Kelly Loeffler - the former having issued Senate Intelligence Committee reports fingering Russia, the latter slavishly loyal to Trump - raises questions of FBI motive and role of Barr."
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Katie Shepherd