DOJ still investigating coronavirus stock sales by Sen. Burr, but drops probes of Loeffler, Inhofe, Feinstein

Loeffler is running for election in her own right this year, but faces nearly two dozen challengers, including Rep. Doug Collins, a fellow Republican whom President Donald Trump had wanted to fill Isakson’s seat.

Loeffler’s husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, is CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, the company that operates the New York Stock Exchange, among other financial marketplaces.

Loeffler and Sprecher, beginning on Jan. 24, sold shares over the next three weeks that were valued at between $1.3 million and $3.1 million, according to disclosure reports filed by Loeffler.

The couple’s sell-off began on the same day that Loeffler attended a senators-only briefing on the coronavirus.

The couple has said that the sales were handled without any input from them at the direction of third-party financial advisors.

Loeffler in mid-May revealed that she gave documents and information related to the sales to the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Senate Ethics Committee.

Loeffler’s office, in a statement on May 14, said that the documents and information she had turned over established “that she and her husband acted entirely appropriately and observed both the letter and the spirit of the law.”

A spokesman for Intercontinental Exchange, known as ICE, declined to comment Tuesday about the Journal’s report.

A Democratic aide told NBC News that Feinstein was informed the Department of Justice is dropping a probe into stock trades made by her husband in the wake of coronavirus briefings.

 Feinstein previously said that she had answered questions from the FBI about her husband’s stock sales and had turned over documents to the FBI.

Her husband Richard Blum sold shares of biotech company Allogene Therapeutics on Jan. 31 that were valued at between $500,000 and $1 million.

Inhofe’s office confirmed the DOJ had dropped the investigation of his stock sales, of shares then valued at between $180,000 and $400,000, days after a Jan. 24 briefing for senators where lawmakers were informed about the risk of Covid-19 to the United States.

Inhofe has said that he plays no role in the management of his investment portfolio. 

Infhofe himself told The Oklahoman newspaper on Tuesday that he was cleared by the DOJ, and noted that he had not attended the Jan. 24 “briefing and do not make my own stock trades.”

“I did nothing wrong, and I’m pleased the Justice Department has exonerated me,” Inhofe said.

— Additional reporting by Ryan Ruggiero.

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/26/coronavirus-doj-investigates-burr-stock-sales-drops-loeffler-feinstein-probes.html