FBI Questions Feinstein Over Stock Trades After Seizing Burr’s Phone

TOPLINE

The FBI has taken action on multiple cases of alleged insider trading by U.S. Senators, questioning Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and seizing the phone of Richard Burr (R-N.C.), but not on cases involving Trump-friendly Senators Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), prompting some to allege a political bias.

KEY FACTS

Key background

Feinstein, Burr, Loeffler and Jim Inhofe (R-Idaho) were all found to have sold stock shortly before the coronavirus pandemic spurred a precipitous market crash in early March. The Justice department launched an inquiry later that month into the stock sales of all four Senators. So far, Burr and Feinstein’s cases are the only ones publicly confirmed to have escalated.

Chief Critic

Some White House critics have questioned whether there was political motive behind the FBI taking action on Feinstein and Burr, who have both been critical of Trump, but not the more Trump-friendly Loeffler and Inhofe. Atlantic writer Adam Serwer speculated that Loeffler may have been “rewarded with impunity for her loyalty to Trump,” while Vox editor Matthew Yglesias noted that Burr has “put up resistance to Trump’s efforts to suborn the intelligence community.”

“You can be sure this was cleared by the White House counsel, if not Trump himself. Also AG Bill Barr,” former Nixon White House Counsel John Dean said of the FBI’s seizure of Burr’s phone. “But why not Senator Kelly Loeffler, who also sold stocks? Because Burr is not a Trump toady—this looks like a vendetta!” Forbes has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.