Earlier this month, as the urgency of the coronavirus crisis sunk in for people or presidents who’d previously brushed it off, we learned that a handful of senators who’d downplayed the risks of the virus for months had also conveniently dumped millions in stock before the market fell off a cliff. Among the group was Georgia’s Kelly Loeffler, who reportedly sold stocks worth between $1,275,000 and $3,100,000 between January 24—when she sat in on a meeting of lawmakers, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases—and mid-February, not long before she tweeted: “Democrats have dangerously and intentionally misled the American people on #Coronavirus readiness. Here’s the truth: @realDonaldTrump & his administration are doing a great job working to keep Americans healthy & safe.” Now, new disclosures show even more selling of stocks in the weeks that followed, plus an extremely well-timed investment in a company that just happens to make the sort of medical equipment that is in extremely short supply at the moment.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, between February 26 and March 11, Loeffler and her husband, Jeff Sprecher, who is the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, sold $18.7 million worth of shares of the Intercontinental Exchange (the parent company of the NYSE). During that same time period, the couple also sold shares in retail companies like T.J. Maxx and Lululemon. And then there’s this:
Loeffler has maintained she did nothing wrong and that an investment firm makes the day-to-day decisions for her and her husband’s portfolio. In a statement, spokesperson Kerry Rom said “Senator Loeffler came to Washington on a promise to be a different kind of elected official, she holds herself to high standards of ethics and transparency, including acting in accordance with both the letter and spirit of the law, which she has done at every step of her time in the Senate and in her lengthy career in financial services.” In a tweet, four-term congressman and GOP rival Doug Collins blasted Loeffler, writing “People are losing their jobs, their businesses, their retirements, and even their lives and Kelly Loeffler is profiting off their pain. I’m sickened just thinking about it.” In a statement texted to the Wall Street Journal, Stephen Lawson, a spokesman for Loeffler’s campaign said: “These false attacks against Senator Loeffler—from the Left, from fake news media, from career politicians—are exactly why people are fed up with Washington.”
Earlier this week, CNN reported that the Department of Justice had launched a probe into trades made by various lawmakers ahead of the market downturn. Thus far, the FBI, in coordination with the DOJ, is said to have reached out to Senator Richard Burr, who sold between $628,000 and $1.7 million in 33 separate transactions on February 13, less than a week after he told the public it had absolutely nothing to fear re: COVID-19. (Thus far there is no indication Burr broke any laws or violated Senate rules, and he maintains he did nothing wrong.)
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