Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) — the latter of whom, no joke, is married to the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange — are not the only ones in government who rushed to adjust their stock portfolios as information about the then-incoming Coronavirus pandemic trickled out. Others who made significant shifts in their investments include Scott Sloofman, a senior communications aide for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Sloofman “made a mid-January purchase of Moderna, Inc., a biotechnology company that had four days earlier announced it would begin developing a coronavirus vaccine,” POLITICO reports, and those with access to government information would have had a clear idea of how sought after a Coronavirus vaccine would soon become.
The company in which Sloofman made a significant stock purchase “is now testing the first vaccine for the disease in Washington state,” POLITICO reports. Others in government who made significant stock adjustments prior to the Coronavirus-induced stock market crash include Rep. Susan Davis (D-Calif.), who dumped thousands of dollars worth of stock in Alaska Air and Royal Caribbean cruises, both of which have been hard hit by the Coronavirus outbreak and ensuing restrictions on travel. Additionally, an aide to Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) “sold off stock in companies including Delta Airlines in late January and later bought stock in Clorox, Inc., which makes bleach and sanitary wipes,” POLITICO reports. Sanitation products have clearly become high-demand items.
Meredith McGehee, who serves as the executive director of the watchdog group Issue One, commented:
‘The reality is that if you work on the Hill, or you work in government, you have access to information that the public doesn’t have or, if they have it, they can’t always see the signal through the noise. If you’re on the HELP Committee, you’re going to grasp threats much faster than the general public. You see things much more clearly.’
The first individual to be implemented in this kind of malpractice in connection to the Coronavirus outbreak was Senator Burr. Before the Coronavirus-induced market volatility began, but after he received classified briefing information about projections about the spread of the then-incoming pandemic, he dumped apparently over $1 million worth of stock in companies like hotels that were poised to get hard hit by the outbreak. Adding an extra level of grossness to this situation, days before his major sale, he wrote a reassuring op-ed insisting that America was actually completely prepared to confront the virus. Notably, in case his loyalties were in question, when the STOCK Act passed, which bans insider trading specifically by members of Congress, Burr was one of just a few votes against it in the Senate.
In this case, Burr has made a show of calling for a Senate Ethics Committee investigation of his situation in an apparent attempt to get out ahead of the curve.
Meanwhile, Loeffler has responded to criticism by insisting that she doesn’t actually personally control her investment portfolio, but there’s still an apparent chance for her to have passed along some kind of crucial information that could have sparked the sales that did take place. Rep. Davis issued the same defense.
