Richard Burr Asks Senate Ethics Committee To Investigate His Dodgy Stock Dumping

Forgot to highlight this: the stocks he dumped were hotel/hospitality ones, the first ones that would be shellacked during a pandemic panic.

Burr claims he knew to dump the stocks only because he was a CNBC SuperFan, and not because he got a classified briefing.

"I relied solely on public news reports to guide my decision regarding the sale of stocks on February 13," he said in a statement. "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, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, used more than 30 transactions to dump between $628,000 and $1.72 million on Feb. 13, according to ProPublica.

Burr didn't just dump his own stocks that would be adversely affected by a viral panic -- he also warned well-connected cronies.

"There's one thing that I can tell you about this: It is much more aggressive in its transmission than anything that we have seen in recent history," he said, according to a secret recording of the remarks obtained by NPR. "It is probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic."

Three other Senators are said to have dumped stocks during this same period: Dianne Feinstein (gee why didn't ProPublica mention her?), James Inhofe, and Kelly Loeffler.

However, all three claim that their assets are in blind trust, meaning they're managed by a third party who does not communicate to them what exactly is in the trust or what is being traded. I suppose it might be possible to give a Heads Up to someone managing your trust to dump stocks, but that would be a bit dicey, because they might squeal, and anyway, you'd need proof that something like that occurred.

I think Burr is counting on the idea that many Senators trade on insider information and so he's daring them: "If you convict me, you also convict yourselves."

Well, I wouldn't mind seeing a whole bunch of them convict themselves, but maybe his attempt at soft coercion will work.

A friend writes, "You know, it's Trump that everyone suspected would be the scumbag businessman caught in a dirty deal, but nope, it's a member of the Republican Old Guard and a prized Deep State Asset."

Tucker Carlson called for Burr to resign immediately if he cannot adequately explain his stock maneuverings.

If you want to know why some of us are very keen to get this Deep State Agent-in-Place out of any position of power, read Mollie Hemingway. She herself is not calling for him to resign, but she does demand that the GOP strip Burr of his precious committee assignments and leadership duties.

[I]t is long past time for Burr to step aside as chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Burr had already let the country down in that role. Under his leadership, the Senate Intelligence Committee was worse than useless at overseeing the intelligence community's handling of the bizarre theory that Donald Trump was involved in an elaborate conspiracy with Russia to steal the 2016 election from Hillary Clinton. Burr helped perpetuate the idea that this was a reasonable and not insane theory, and took many actions to protect those who spied on the Trump campaign, leaked against Trump administration officials, and withheld evidence from the real congressional overseers on other Senate committees and in the House of the Representatives.

The only notable thing to have happened in that committee over the course of the Russia collusion hoax was the arrest of one of its staffers for lying regarding his leaks of information to reporters he was intimate with. Those reporters published information about the surveillance of Carter Page, a Trump campaign affiliate. Burr defended the staffer and begged that he not be imprisoned for his work in perpetuating the false and dangerous Russia collusion hoax.

When Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., could have used support for his brave and later vindicated work uncovering wrongdoing at the Department of Justice regarding the surveillance of Page, Burr instead joined Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and activists in the media in strongly defending the Department of Justice's applications to spy on Page. He told media outlets he saw nothing wrong with the applications and that there were "sound reasons" to spy on Page. The media lapped this up and used it as a way to further bash Nunes and the few overseers who sounded the alarm about wrongdoing.

...

The special counsel that was wound up, ostensibly, to investigate that theory was unable to find a single American who had colluded with Russia, much less anyone associated with the Trump campaign. Yet Burr was a strong defender of the limitless probe that did so much to hamper the domestic and foreign policy of the Trump administration.

Trump, who's a big slow in the update a lot of the time, just said that he finds that Feinstein and Burr are "very honorable people."

Okay.

Read the whole thing. That goes for you too, Trump.

Burr is a Bad Actor and another one of the Controlled Opposition "Republicans" who has actually always been in the employ of the dominant Deep State/Democrat establishment.

If he's guilty of insider trading as well-- well that's just icing on the cake.

Burr should step down so he can spend more time with his Russia Collusion Conspiracy Theories.

486 Richard Burr is perhaps the c**kiest senator this side of Willard. He brings absolutely nothing to the conservative table. He provided NO support for Trump during the Russia hoax nonsense, instead constantly deferring to the Democrat minority. It's been obvious that he is a card-carrying member of the Deep State, running interference for them on many occasions (including the Russia hoax). Why Burr is chair of a major GOP committee is unfathomable, perhaps the surest sign that McConnell is NeverTrump.

Hopefully this teaches the other GOPers that cucking will not save you from the left. The DS may try to show Burr why they're so valuable to him by pulling his ass out of the fire. Or they may decide he is too toxic and throw him under the bus.
Posted by: Catoi

posted by Ace at 01:11 PM

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