Burr Releases Statement in Response to Insider Trading Allegations, Claims He Made His Decision to Sell Stock Based on “Public News Reports”

Richard Burr 

Senate Intel Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) on Friday released a statement in response to insider trading accusations.

Burr said he got his information from public news reports.

“I relied solely on public news reports to guide my decisions regarding the sale of stocks on February 13,” Burr said. “Specifically, I closely followed CNBC’s daily health and science reporting out of its Asia bureaus at the time.”

Burr said he requested an ethics investigation…into himself.

“I spoke this morning with the chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee and asked him to open a complete review of the matter with full transparency,” he said. 

My statement in response to reports about recent financial disclosures: pic.twitter.com/J4kye5a4ok

— Richard Burr (@SenatorBurr) March 20, 2020

Burr dumped as much as $1.72 million in hotel stocks before the Coronavirus panic hit the US while reassuring the public about Coronavirus preparedness.

This was also at the same time Burr was receiving daily briefings on the Coronavirus health threat.

Privately Burr sounded the alarm and compared Coronavirus to the 1918 “Spanish Flu” that nearly wiped out 10% of the world’s population at the time — including 675,000 Americans by some estimates.

“There’s one thing that I can tell you about this: It is much more aggressive in its transmission than anything that we have seen in recent history,” he said, according to a secret recording obtained by NPR. “It is probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic.”

Publicly, however, Burr downplayed the virus.

Tucker Carlson went off on Richard Burr Thursday night for selling stock after learning about how devastating Coronavirus would be.

“There is no greater moral crime than betraying your country in a time of crisis,” said Tucker.

WATCH: 

Tucker Carlson calls out Sen. Richard Burr for selling stock when he learned how devastating coronavirus would be:

“There is no greater moral crime than betraying your country in a time of crisis.”
pic.twitter.com/K4Fc5kmMDK

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) March 20, 2020