WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two Republican senators faced calls on Friday that they resign over reports they sold substantial amounts of stock ahead of the global coronavirus-induced market meltdown after receiving closed-door briefings on the outbreak.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) listens as Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg testify before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on foreign influence operations on social media platforms on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., September 5, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr sold up to $1.7 million worth of stock on Feb. 13 in 33 separate transactions after offering public assurances the government was ready to battle the virus. His financial filings were first reported by ProPublica.
Senator Kelly Loeffler also sold millions of dollars in shares in the weeks after lawmakers were first briefed on the virus, according to public filings.
Media reports about Burr and Loeffler, who have denied wrongdoing, prompted calls for them to leave office if they were found to have broken the law from people as disparate as a progressive Democratic lawmaker and a conservative commentator.
As Intelligence Committee chairman, Burr has been receiving regular classified updates on the outbreak.
Burr made public comments in line with Republican President Donald Trump’s early assurances that the country could easily handle the situation. But the senator told a private luncheon in Washington two weeks after the stock sale that the coronavirus was much more aggressive in its transmission “than anything that we have seen in recent history,” according to a recording obtained by National Public Radio.
The comments predated Wall Stree