Abuse of Power

“The Trump campaign’s threat to revoke television station licenses for airing advertisements critical of the President’s actions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic raises serious concerns that the President is potentially abusing his power to intimidate and retaliate against political opponents. The FCC has no authority to revoke broadcast licenses for airing political advertisements critical of the President’s actions. More importantly, the President cannot direct the FCC, an independent agency, to take this action."

“This provision helps ensure President Trump and his family can’t benefit from coronavirus pandemic, but there are some loopholes,” said Aaron Scherb, director of legislative affairs at Common Cause, an advocacy group that works closely with House committee staffers. “They could benefit in indirect ways.”

Common Cause said the trades by the senators as alleged involved “potentially criminal misconduct.” “These Senators appear to have used classified intelligence briefings as stock tips and sold off significant holdings to avoid losses in the markets,” said Paul Ryan, Common Cause Vice President for Policy and Litigation. “These laws are on the books for a good reason, without them the potential to abuse the power of elected office for personal enrichment would be virtually unlimited.”

Today, Common Cause filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC,) and the Senate Ethics Committee calling for immediate investigations of Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), and James Inhofe (R-OK) for possible violations of the STOCK Act and insider trading laws. According to widespread reports, each of the Senators sold off significant amounts of stock from the personal portfolios after receiving classified briefings from government officials about the seriousness of the Coronavirus threat to the United States in January and February.

Common Cause, a Washington-based watchdog group, filed complaints against all four lawmakers — Burr, Loeffler, Inhofe and Feinstein — with the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Senate Ethics Committee, citing the STOCK Act. “These potential violations of insider trading laws and the STOCK Act by these Senators ... show what appears to be contempt for the law and further a contempt for the American people these Senators have sworn to serve," Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause, said in a statement.

On March 20, 2020, Common Cause filed complaints with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice calling for investigations of Senators Richard Burr, Kelly Loeffler, James Inhofe and Dianne Feinstein to determine whether the Senators violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 (STOCK Act), the Securities Exchange Act, the U.S. Criminal Code and other federal laws and regulations regarding stock trading applicable to Members of Congress. Specifically, Common Cause requested an investigation of whether these Senators engaged in illegal insider trading by trading stocks based on material, nonpublic information regarding the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic received in private, confidential briefings for Senators by officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and other government officials.