Republican Sen. Richard Burr calls for an investigation into his own decision to dump stocks after coronavirus briefings
- Republican Sen. Richard Burr called for an investigation into his own actions on Friday.
- ProPublica revealed on Thursday evening that Burr dumped as much as $1.72 million in stocks on February 13, days after reassuring the public that the US was well prepared to handle the novel coronavirus.
- Burr said in a statement Friday that he "relied solely on public news reports to guide my decision regarding the sale of stocks on February 13."
- "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."
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Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina is calling for an investigation into his own actions.
On Thursday, ProPublica published a bombshell report detailing how Burr dumped as much as $1.72 million in stocks on February 13, days after reassuring the public that the Trump administration was well prepared to handle the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
"I relied solely on public news reports to guide my decision regarding the sale of stocks on February 13," Burr said in a statement Friday.
He added: "Specifically, I closely followed CNBC's daily health and science reporting out of its Asia bureaus at the time. 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."
Burr is the chairman of the powerful Senate Intelligence Committee, which has access to the federal government's most classified and sensitive information. According to Reuters, Burr's committee was getting daily briefings on the threat of the coronavirus around the time he dumped his stock.
In a February 7 op-ed for Fox News, Burr - along with Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee - acknowledged that "Americans are rightfully concerned about the coronavirus" at a time when the number of cases in China were still skyrocketing.
The senators added, however, that "Thankfully, the United States today is better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats, like the coronavirus, in large part due to the work of the Senate Health Committee, Congress, and the Trump Administration."
According to Burr's financial disclosure form, he started dumping stock on February 13, six days after writing that op-ed.
He made a total of 33 separate transactions, unloading anywhere from $1,001 to $100,000 worth of stocks in different companies.
ProPublica's report came hours after NPR reported it had obtained a recording that features Burr raising dire concerns about the coronavirus to members of a private Washington club.
"There's one thing I can tell you about this: It is much more aggressive in its transmission than anything we have seen in recent history. It's probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic," Burr said in the recording, according to NPR.
"Every company should be cognizant of the fact that you may have to alter your travel," Burr added. "You may have to look at your employees and judge whether the trip they're making to Europe is essential or whether it could be done on video conference. Why risk it?"
After ProPublica published its report, it surfaced that several other US senators had also dumped millions in stocks right before the markets plummeted amid fears of the coronavirus.
Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia sold off shares after a closed-door briefing on the outbreak on January 24. Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe and Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson also unloaded stocks in the weeks after the briefing.