monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Team MAGA--oh my Dog, **** like that is hilarious, you can't make up **** that funny. Does "Team MAGA" preform, too?

Ah-hahahahahahahahahahahaha . . .

A wise man. I suppose the racist leftists here will attack this smart black man.

FBI serves warrant on senator in investigation of stock sales linked to coronavirus
Richard Burr
The FBI seized Sen. Richard Burr’s cellphone as part of Justice Department investigation into stock trades he made just before the novel coronavirus sent stock prices plunging.
(J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)
By Del Quentin Wilber, Jennifer Haberkorn
May 13, 2020
6:54 PM
UPDATED 7:17 PM
WASHINGTON —

Federal agents seized a cellphone belonging to a prominent Republican senator on Wednesday night as part of the Justice Department’s investigation into controversial stock trades he made as the novel coronavirus first struck the U.S., a law enforcement official said.

Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, turned over his phone to agents after they served a search warrant on the lawmaker at his residence in the Washington area, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a law enforcement action.

The seizure represents a significant escalation in the investigation into whether Burr violated a law preventing members of Congress from trading on insider information they have gleaned from their official work.

To obtain a search warrant, federal agents and prosecutors must persuade a judge they have probable cause to believe a crime has been committed. The law enforcement official said the Justice Department is examining Burr’s communications with his broker.

Such a warrant being served on a sitting U.S. senator would require approval from the highest ranks of the Justice Department and is a step that would not be taken lightly. Kerri Kupec, a Justice Department spokeswoman, declined to comment.

A second law enforcement official said FBI agents served a warrant in recent days on Apple to obtain information from Burr’s iCloud account and said agents used data obtained from the California-based company as part of the evidence used to obtain the warrant for the senator’s phone.

Burr sold a significant percentage of his stock portfolio in 33 different transactions on Feb. 13, just as his committee was receiving daily coronavirus briefings and a week before the stock market declined sharply. Much of the stock was invested in businesses that in subsequent weeks were hit hard by the plunging market.

Burr and other senators received briefings from U.S. public health officials before the stock sales.

A spokesperson for the FBI did not return phone messages seeking comment. A spokeswoman for Burr declined to comment. Burr has said he does not plan to run for reelection in 2022.

Burr’s sell-off — which was publicly disclosed in ranges — amounted to between $628,000 and $1.72 million. The stock trades were first reported by ProPublica.

After the sales became public, Burr said that he would ask the Senate Ethics Committee to review them.

Burr is not the only senator who has come under fire for dumping stock as the virus neared the United States.

In late February and early March, Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) sold stocks valued at between $1.25 million and $3.1 million in companies that later dropped significantly, including ExxonMobil. She also bought shares in Citrix, which makes telework software.

Loeffler, who was appointed to her seat to fill a vacancy and faces an election later this year, said after the sales became public that she and her husband would divest all individual stocks.

Burr, a longtime supporter of federal programs responsible for dealing with a pandemic, sits on two Senate committees that got early briefings on the coronavirus — the Intelligence Committee and the Senate committee that handles health issues.

The health committee received a briefing on the virus on Feb. 12, one day before his stock trades.

The same day Burr sold his stocks, Burr’s brother-in-law, Gerald Fauth, sold between $97,000 and $280,000 worth of six stocks, according to documents filed with the Office of Government Ethics. Fauth serves on the National Mediation Board, which provides mediation for labor disputes in the aviation and rail industries.

Burr has denied coordinating trading with his brother-in-law.

In 2012, Congress prohibited lawmakers from acting on intelligence they learn because of their privileged position, such as briefings with high-level federal officials.

Under the STOCK Act, lawmakers are required to disclose their stock market activity but are still allowed to own stock, even in industries they might oversee.

The law passed the Senate in 2012 in a 96-3 vote. Among the three senators to oppose the bill was Burr.

Times staff writer Sarah D. Wire contributed to this report.


Another one bites the dust.

Oh look, Its Ms. MacAninny....I feel better already.

When a post received ten down-thumbs in five minutes, we know we're hitting raw nerves, so keep it up, folks.

We all knew the previous admin was the most corrupt in the history of the nation.

Now we will hopefully see the evidence of that emerging.

No wonder the apologists here are grasping at any straw they can find.

If you're talking about the US admin, not yours, Obama s admin was far more upright, honest, and responsiv.e to the needs of society and the electorate than trumps has ever been or ever will be. There were definitely a corps of haters who never accepoted anything he did, but the majority of the country then and now supported him, not least because he put the economy back together after republicanomics wrecked it.

Mate, I actually believed the hype, when they were spruiking young Barry for the post.

I also applauded the chance at genuine change, with Obama.

All I can figure is, they reckoned getting rid of a red-necked southerner, and slotting in a suave, educated coloured boy, will go over real well.

And he got a republican party that vowed to detroy anything ha wanted to do , and the country wanted him to do, from his first day in office to his last. And then we git a oresudent whoi coyuldnt win the office on his own, who vowed the same thing and has damned near wrecked the country doing it.

Manufactured hype. They've got you people so polarised, you're fanatical about symbolism again.

Not manufacture. The GOP was open about it.

And thats the Obama legacy. Hes a well rspected and loved ex president (The actual haters are a subset of the GOP militia contingent)
When Trump presented his "Obamagate" BS, the Senate rebuffed him . They know the backlash would weaken their credibility and would certainly assure a return to Dem majority of the Senate. McConnell delivered the news to a petulant Trump.

The horseshit the propaganda bots of the right produce is pretty transparent. George W. Bush was not even close fo a redneck southern boy. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and educated at Yale and Harvard. He was, of course, a child of privilege--as far from a redneck as one can imagine.

Privilege that goes all the way back to his great grandfather working with John D. Rockefeller monopolizing shipment of petroleum.