WASHINGTON _ Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina has stepped aside as the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
"Sen. Burr contacted me this morning to inform me of his decision to step aside as Chairman of the Intelligence Committee during the pendency of the investigation. We agreed that this decision would be in the best interests of the committee and will be effective at the end of the day tomorrow," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced in a statement.
The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday that Burr turned his phone over to agents after they served a search warrant on the lawmaker at his residence in the Washington area. The warrant was part of a Justice Department investigation into potentially millions of dollars' worth of stock trades Burr made as the coronavirus first struck the U.S.
Burr sold a significant percentage of his stock portfolio in 33 different transactions on Feb. 13, just as his committee was receiving daily coronavirus briefings from U.S. public health officials and a week before the stock market declined sharply. Much of the stock was invested in businesses that in subsequent weeks were hit hard by the plunging market.
Burr has previously denied any wrongdoing, saying he made the trades based solely on public information. On Thursday he said he stepped aside because the investigation is a "distraction."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., was questioned last month by law enforcement about stock transactions by her husband, Richard Blum, shortly before the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States and sent stocks tumbling.
Feinstein was asked "basic factual" questions, according to her spokesman Tom Mentzer.
"She was happy to voluntarily answer those questions to set the record straight and provided additional documents to show she had no involvement in her husband's transactions," Mentzer said. "There have been no follow-up actions on this issue."
Feinstein's stocks have been in a blind trust since she came to the Senate, Mentzer said. The stocks traded in February were owned by her husband. Senators are required to disclose their spouses' financial holdings.
While walking into the Capitol Thursday, Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., who sold stocks valued at between $1.25 million and $3.1 million in late February and early March in companies that later dropped significantly, ignored questions of if she had been questioned by the FBI.
