Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) leaves the U.S. Capitol after voting on May 14, 2020 in Washington, USA.
Erin Scott | Reuters
The Department of Justice will not prosecute Senator Richard Burr for shares that the Republican of North Carolina carried on his heels when he was briefed on Covid-19 last year, shortly before the coronavirus pandemic rocked the U.S. economy .
The investigation into Burr included the extremely unusual seizure of his cell phone by the FBI in May, which led him to step down the same month as chairman of the Senate’s powerful intelligence committee.
“Tonight, the Department of Justice informed me that it had completed its review of my personal financial transactions early last year,” Burr said in a statement Tuesday night.
“The case is now settled. I am glad to hear that. My focus has been and will continue to be working for the people of North Carolina during this difficult time for our country,” Burr said.
The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.
But a DOJ official confirmed to NBC News that the investigation was closed.
The news came about President Donald Trump’s last night in office.
The closure of the probe brings an apparent end to a controversy that erupted last March, when the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic began hitting the United States.
Burr was one of several senators who raised eyebrows about stocks taking place in their accounts, which came after receiving information warning of the possible consequences of Covid, but before the pandemic began to spread rapidly.
But unlike the other senators, Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, Dianne Feinstein of California and James Inhofe of Oklahoma, Burr did not deny that he decided to sell the stock himself, or that concerns about coronavirus were his primary motivation for the sale. wash.
Only Burr is subject to an ongoing criminal investigation by DOJ for his shares. The other three, who, like Burr, denied any wrongdoing, were told in May that they would not face criminal charges.
Members of Congress are legally prohibited from using non-public information they obtain through their official positions to personally benefit from the stock market.
The STOCK ACT that codified this ban was signed by President Barack Obama in 2012, after passing the Senate in a 96-3 vote. Burr was one of three “no” votes on the law
As chairman of the intelligence service, Burr was given access in January and February 2020 to classified intelligence reports that contained strong warnings about the coronavirus.
On February 13 last year, Burr dropped shares worth $ 630,000 to $ 1.7 million, with 33 individual transactions done in one day. The shares he sold represent a significant part of his financial portfolio.
A week later, stock markets plunged for fear the pandemic would cripple the world economy. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 30% of its value in the weeks following Burr’s trading.
ProPublica reported that his brother-in-law Gerald Fauth himself sold tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of stock on the day Burr sold his shares.
Fauth was appointed by Trump in 2017 as a seat on the three-member National Mediation Board, a federal agency that helps facilitate labor relations for the transportation industry.
At the time of the ProPublica report, Burr’s attorney, Alice Fisher, told the news agency that Burr “did not coordinate his decision to trade” with Fauth.
“From the outset, Senator Burr has been focused on an appropriate and thorough review of the facts in this matter, which will determine that his actions were appropriate,” Fisher said at the time.
At the end of March, Burr said: “I only relied on public news reports to guide my decision to sell shares.”
“I specifically followed the daily health and scientific reporting of CNBC from its then Asia bureaus,” he said.