Donald Trump may have promised to “drain the swamp” in Washington, D.C. politics, but it seems all he’s done is made the swamp an even deeper and murkier place for criminals to prosper.
GOP Rep. Christopher Collins (R-NY), one of Trump’s earliest backers in his bid for the presidency, has been arrested on multiple criminal charges on Wednesday morning.
Collins has made millions from a pharmaceutical company he owns stock in and has pushed through legislation to bring the company into the U.S. market. Along with Collins, five other Republican congressman are also invested in the company. In a phone conversation from January, Collins asked an associate “do you know how many millionaires I’ve made in Buffalo the past few months?”
NBC News reports that:
‘Collins, 68, faces insider trading charges along with his son, Cameron Collins, and Stephen Zarsky, the father of Cameron Collins’ fiancée, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York.’
Collins denies any wrongdoing, but both criminally and ethically, it appears he has no real defense. Just like Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, he will now face his day in court.
According to The Daily Beast:
‘The Republican congressman purchased $2.2 million worth of stock in Innate Immunotherapeutics as part of its initial public offering in late 2013, according to a previously unreported document Collins filed with Australia’s securities authority. The IPO prospectus said Innate would seek FDA approval of its drug to treat multiple sclerosis. More than a year later, Collins wrote into a bill language to expedite the FDA’s approval process for such drugs. Four months before the bill was signed into law, Collins again purchased stock in Innate, this time as much as $1 million, according to congressional financial disclosure records.’
Trump may want to hold off on some of his famous pardons to save them for the friends he won’t have backing him anymore in 2020 while they all sit in prison.
