But will they do anything to the ass fuckers???

Justice Department move should worry some who sold stock before market tanked

Opinion by Elie Honig

Now that the Justice Department reportedly has started reviewing stock transactions made by lawmakers shortly before the dramatic market downturn caused by the coronavirus, we should get answers to key questions about whether those transactions were criminal or otherwise improper. While we cannot know what the Justice Department will ultimately find, the very fact that it has started to probe could be bad news for those involved.

As a former federal prosecutor, I know that the Justice Department does not begin reviewing financial transactions based on guesswork or hunches. As the FBI's formal guidelines describe the standard to open even a preliminary investigation, there must be at least some "allegation or information indicative of possible criminal or national security-threatening activity." In other words, you don't need a fire, but you do need a spark.

The Justice Department review reportedly is focused, at least in part, on Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, who claims he relied solely on public news reports to guide his investment decisions. Other senators -- including Kelly Loeffler from Georgia, Dianne Feinstein from California, and Jim Inhofe from Oklahoma -- may have benefited from fortunately-timed stock sales before the market downturn.

Loeffler, Feinstein and Inhofe's offices said the FBI had not contacted them in connection with the stock sales. Loeffler denied any wrongdoing, stating she has used a third-party adviser and had not learned of the sales until afterward. Senate records show that Feinstein's husband -- and not Feinstein herself -- sold stock, and she denies having any input into her husband's financial decisions. And Inhofe similar denied any involvement in the investment decisions in question.

Meanwhile, Burr's attorney has stated that he "welcomes a thorough review of the facts in this matter, which will establish that his actions were appropriate." The attorney added, "The law is clear that any American -- including a Senator -- may participate in the stock market based on public information, as Senator Burr did. When this issue arose, Senator Burr immediately asked the Senate Ethics Committee to conduct a complete review, and he will cooperate with that review as well as any other appropriate inquiry."

Whether the case ultimately results in criminal charges for insider trading depends primarily on one key phrase: "material, non-public information." If the stock sales at issue were based on such information, then insider trading charges could be in play.

Let's break that down. Senators may have received non-public information before these stocks were sold. In fact, senators routinely receive closed-door briefings -- including about public health crises, such as coronavirus, so potentially pertinent information could have been shared with them. That said, we cannot be certain who was in those briefings.

And information is "material" if a reasonable investor would consider it relevant to the decision to buy or sell stock; in other words, information is "material" if it is important enough to move an investor's needle. We don't yet know precisely what information the senators received behind closed doors, but briefers don't tend to waste senators' time with trivial or irrelevant chatter.

Even if Burr's decision, for example, to sell stock were based on a mixture of material, non-public information (which is prohibited) and information known to the general public (which is not), it could still be insider trading under federal law if the material, non-public information "was a factor, however small, in the defendant's decision to purchase or sell stock."

And while some of the senators have claimed they did not directly make the stock transactions themselves, they could be liable for insider trading if they provided material, non-public information to others with the intent that it be used to make stock purchases or sales.

For now, we must wait for officials to complete their investigation, which could result in criminal charges by the Justice Department, civil charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (which reportedly is participating in the review), congressional investigation and disciplinary action -- or nothing at all.

But the conveniently-timed trades -- which collectively saved millions of dollars in losses for senators -- have raised the public specter of wrongdoing and profiteering as the nation grapples with a massive public health and economic crisis.