Sen. Richard Burr on Tuesday. Burr and his brother-in-law sold a large amount of stock on the same day in February, ahead of the stock market collapse.Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty
Holy guacamole:
Federal agents seized a cellphone belonging to a prominent Republican senator on Wednesday night as part of the Justice Department’s investigation into controversial stock trades he made as the coronavirus first struck the U.S., a law enforcement official said.
Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, turned over his phone to agents after they served a search warrant on the lawmaker at his residence in the Washington area, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a law enforcement action.
The seizure represents a significant escalation in the investigation into whether Burr violated a law preventing members of Congress from trading on insider information they have gleaned from their official work.
I personally have a hard time keeping all the news in my brain and this sounds like in this moment something I read about a lifetime ago. But in truth it was quite recent.
The feds executing a warrant at the house of a sitting senator is big time.
Burr spokesperson Cailtin Carroll declined to comment on the news.
Read the whole thing at the LATimes. Tomorrow you’ll be reading about it in many more places.
