Sen. Intel Chair Richard Burr Reportedly Sold Off $1.6M in Stock Before Dow Tanked, Tipped Off Big Donors to Coronavirus Dangers

Colby HallMar 19th, 2020, 6:39 pm
 

Win McNamee/Getty

If you are having a hard time dealing with the ill effects of the coronavirus pandemic, you can take some solace in the fact that someone is having a MUCH tougher time.

Two reports surfaced Thursday afternoon that painted Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) in the least favorable light. Burr chairs the Senate Intel Committee, and it seems he was privy to classified information about just how dangerous the coronavirus outbreak could be, in the earliest days of the outbreak started in Wuhan, China.

Reporter Tim Mak obtained leaked audio of Senator Burr shared dire warnings to Republican insiders in late February, at the same time President Donald Trump was actively tamping down fears about COVID-19.

Mak cites leaked audio and reports the following:

“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.”

The luncheon had been organized by the Tar Heel Circle, a nonpartisan group whose membership consists of businesses and organizations in North Carolina, the state Burr represents. Membership to join the Tar Heel Circle costs between $500 and $10,000 and promises that members “enjoy interaction with top leaders and staff from Congress, the administration, and the private sector,” according to the group’s website.

In attendance, according to a copy of the RSVP list obtained by NPR, were dozens of invited guests representing companies and organizations from North Carolina. And according to federal records, those companies or their political committees donated more than $100,000 to Burr’s election campaign in 2015 and 2016. (Burr announced previously he was not planning to run for reelection in 2022.)

The dire message that Burr delivered to a group of GOP fundraisers stands in contrast to what he wasn’t sharing with his North Carolinian constituents.

“Every company should be cognizant of the fact that you may have to alter your travel. You may have to look at your employees and judge whether the trip they’re making to Europe is essential or whether it can be done on video conference. Why risk it?” Burr said to his fellow luncheoneers.

This was 13 days before the U.S. State Department warned citizens against international travel, and 16 days before North Carolina closed its schools, as “Burr warned it could happen” in Mak’s piece.

Not a good look sharing classified intel with fundraisers and keeping it from kids. But wait, there’s more.

An independent Pro Publica report with a joint byline of Robert Faturechi and Derek Willis claims that Burr sold off nearly $1.6 Million of his stock portfolio the week before the market dropped a record amount due to coronavirus. The article reports:

Soon after he offered public assurances that the government was ready to battle the coronavirus, the powerful chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr, sold off a significant percentage of his stocks, unloading between $582,029 and $1.56 million of his holdings on Feb. 13 in 29 separate transactions.

As the head of the intelligence committee, Burr, a North Carolina Republican, has access to the government’s most highly classified information about threats to America’s security. His committee was receiving daily coronavirus briefings around this time, according to a Reuters story.

A week after Burr’s sales, the stock market began a sharp decline and has lost about 30% since.

The private trading policies allowed by Congress have evolved and it’s not yet clear that Burr broke any laws. If Burr was on the board of any of these companies then he could be open to insider trading statutes, but that’s not clear either.

But regardless if he’s broken any laws or not, Burr’s actions, if true, present an awful set of optics which are not a good look for any elected official during this very real national emergency.

UPDATE: Senator Burr responds to NPR’s report

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Colby Hall - Founding Editor

Colby Hall is the Founding Editor of Mediaite.com. He is also a Peabody Award-winning television producer of non-fiction narrative programming as well as a terrific dancer and preparer of grilled meats.