Burr Out As Senate Intel Committee Chair After FBI Seizes His Phone In Insider Trading Probe

Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) has stepped down as the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee after the FBI got a warrant and seized his cell phone.

Read About Ivanka Trump's Plotting To Return To The White House On THE DAILY

Senate Majority Leader McConnell announced that Burr is stepping down from his powerful committee chairmanship:

Video from MSNBC:

Sen. Burr’s office said he is stepping down so that he doesn’t distract the Senate Intelligence Committee:

Sen. Burr is currently under investigation for insider trading after he dumped $1.6 million in stocks before the coronavirus hit the United States. The FBI is investigating the Senator from North Carolina for using information gained from his position as Intelligence Committee chairman to avoid the stock market crash that came with the pandemic.

Burr also gave his top donors a secret briefing telling them to prepare for the virus, while he was downplaying the threat to the public.

It is going to be difficult for the federal government to charge Burr with a crime unless there is smoking-gun evidence on his phone, but it is unlikely that leaving the Intel Committee will be enough to save him from resigning.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Follow Jason Easley on Facebook

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association