The revelation that multiple U.S. senators being briefed on the coming coronavirus pandemic cashed out their investments before stocks tanked sparked a wave of outrage Friday — but so far Kentucky’s two high-profile senators have stayed above the fray.
Neither Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell nor Sen. Rand Paul has sold any stocks of late, according to the Senate’s financial disclosures website.
On the contrary, the only recent activity comes from McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao.
Chao, the secretary of transportation, owns between $500,000 and $1 million worth of Wells Fargo stock, from which she derives between $15,000 and $50,000 in dividends annually, according to the Senate website. Each quarter Chao uses that money to buy more Well Fargo stock — what’s called a dividend reinvestment — and this March was no exception.
The same cannot be said of North Carolina Republican Richard Burr, chairman of the powerful Senate Intelligence Committee.
Burr dumped between $628,000 and $1.72 million of his investments on Feb. 13, around the time he was receiving daily coronavirus briefings, ProPublica first reported Thursday. They included shares of Wyndham Hotels and Resorts and Extended Stay America, both of which have since dropped in value.
In response to calls for his resignation, Burr said he “relied solely on public news reports” to guide his decision on the stock sale. On Friday, he asked the chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee to open an investigation.
Burr, also a member of the Senate Health Committee, which hosted a briefing open to all senators on Jan. 24, is not alone. At least three other senators sold off big before markets crashed, according to their financial disclosures:
-California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, another member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sold between $1.5 million and $6 million worth of stock in Allogene Therapeutics, a California-based biotech company, The New York Times reported.
-Georgia Republican Kelly Loeffler, who tweeted about attending the Jan. 24 coronavirus briefing, shortly thereafter dumped millions of dollars worth of investments, while also picking between $100,000 and $250,000 in Citrix, a teleworking stock that has since risen in value, The Daily Beast first reported.
-Oklahoma Republican Jim Inhofe sold off between $180,000 and $400,000 worth of stock on Jan. 27, including shares of Apple and shopping mall owner Brookfield Asset Management, The New York Times first reported.
Lawmakers must regularly disclose trades under the Stop Trading on Congressional nowledge ACT, or STOCK act, signed into law in 2012 by President Barack Obama. At the time, Burr was one of just three senators who opposed the bill, The Los Angeles Times reported.
For some senators, especially Kentucky’s Paul, financial disclosures reveal more than an estimate of each individual’s net worth. They provide a window into the lawmaker’s worldview.
Paul is a harsh critic of the country’s central bank, the Federal Reserve, which he has said “operates under a cloak of secrecy.”
The Fed controls the country’s money supply and interest rates, something Paul believes should be left to the free market. His disclosures show he continues to put his money where his mouth is, as a November 2015 Money article put it.
The magazine described Paul’s unorthodox mix of funds invested in Treasury bonds and precious metals as “the financial equivalent of heat-and-eat meals and powdered milk, readying for the apocalypse.”
The senator, whose office did not respond to a request for comment, has continued to insure against inflation with various investments in money market funds and gold, according to his 2018 financial disclosure.
But Paul’s net worth — estimated at $1.3 million in 2015 by the The Center for Responsive Politics — is a paltry sum compared with McConnell's.
The Senate majority leader had an estimated net worth of $26.7 million in 2016, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. According to his 2018 disclosure, his biggest position is an investment of between $5 million and $25 million in the Vanguard 500 Index Admiral fund, a way of investing in the U.S. stock market as a whole.
Asked to comment on the majority leader’s investments, a spokesman said McConnell is “focused on addressing the coronavirus.” He referred The Courier Journal instead to a third virus relief bill that McConnell introduced Thursday.
Among other measures, the bill would provide $1,200 to people who make up to $75,000 annually.
No need to worry: Rand Paul is squeaky clean!
Reply With Quote
Connect With Us