This was either a crime or it wasn't. If it wasn't, you all should be ashamed for declaring the man a criminal.
There is no heightened standard here. Every 65 year old with limited means had the info on the Corona in mid February. Most chose to sell and understandably so at their age. The media then sets the consumer up with the false report that Burr only knew about this from his meetings--when it was clearly long in the public domain.
The big picture here is whether a retiring Senator should be required to hold all stocks in a time of crisis--regardless of tax ramifications to him or his own needs. We have decided as a country that he is not required to do so. If we want to revisit that, and make no stock transfers for Congress folk the law, we can. But we haven't. If we do, I would guess even less qualified people would run for Congress. That's probably part of the reason the law is what it is here.
I would probably be in favor of changing the law. What I think is despicable though is holding Burr to a law that isn't there.
Wow, what a low standard: apparently, you can only criticize those in political office if they are convicted of a crime.
This is what Burr did:
- As the head of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, in January and early February, he received daily coronavirus briefings which foretold that the virus was out of control in China, and its spread into the U.S. and the rest of the world was imminent.
- Those briefings were not available to the public, and Burr only had access to them as the result of his position as a public servant representing interests of all Americans generally and his NC constituents specifically.
- On February 13, Burr sold over $1 million in stock (could be as much as $1.72 million of stock depending on how its valued) to protect his finances, while at the same staying silent to those he represents about his concerns about the virus and how it will impact the world economy.
- On February 24, eleven days after Burr's sell off, the markets started tank and the American public has lost trillions of dollars.
- On February 27, after the markets decline had started, Burr told a group of NC business leaders about his concerns about the coronavirus.
- Insider trading is when a person knows of "material non-public information" and uses that information to trade stock.
Burr will likely never be convicted of insider trading or violating the STOCK act, which expressly prohibits members of congress from using their position to gain an advantage in the market, because Burr will lie his ass off and claim that he independently became concerned about the spread of the virus using only publicly available information, rather than from the confidential intelligence briefings and unless there are recorded conversations or specific emails where Burr admits to using information gained from the intelligence briefings (which he did), there won't be the smoking gun needed to convict him. So, Burr will skate. That said, I am the opposite of "ashamed" for calling Burr a piece of shit, because that is what he is.