Economy

Sen. Kelly Loeffler Denies Insider Trading Allegations, Fails Again To Name Stock Manager

Published

3 years ago

April 8, 2020

Senator Kelly Loeffler, R-GA, is continuing to deny allegations of insider trading surrounding stocks she sold before the coronavirus hit the U.S. markets and failed to answer questions regarding who manages those stocks, during an interview Wednesday with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo.

Sen. Loeffler’s ‘peek-a-boo trust’ Raising Speculation As She Refuses To Name Broker

“I have not profited. I never sought to profit from my position at the Senate. I’m here to serve all Georgians. In fact, I donate my paycheck to good charities around Georgia doing hard work serving our citizens,” Loeffler told Bartiromo.

She added, “I went to the Senate after a nearly three-decade career in the private sector, in financial services, where I conducted myself with the highest levels of integrity. Third party managers manage all of our investments. I have no communication with them. And this is cherry-picking for dates and times around events that are completely unrelated to my investment manager’s decisions or any meetings or communications I have had.”

Loeffler recently sold $46,027 worth of stock in the online travel company Booking Holdings just before President Donald Trump banned travel to most of Europe, according to Sara A. Carter’s reporting. That sale was in addition to what she sold $18.7 million in stocks she sold during February and March.

Allegations of insider trading began to surface when Loeffler purchased stocks that would perform well in a pandemic. For example, she invested in DuPont, which manufactures COVID-19 protective garments and Citrix, a telecom company.

Of her purchases, Loeffler told Bartiromo that the decisions were made by third party managers and that she “had no involvement in and had nothing to do with any meetings I’m in.”

Dan McLagan, the spokesman for Rep. Doug Collins’ campaign, Loeffler’s opponent in the upcoming Senate race, told Sara A. Carter that Loeffler’s inability to answer key questions, including answering to the identity of her stock broker, is concerning.

“Loeffler apparently has a ‘peek-a-boo trust’ rather than a blind one,” said McLagan. “She’s more concerned about her personal profit than the little people she represents with their petty worries about illness, late mortgages and cratered retirement plans.”

When asked by Carter, Loeffler denied any knowledge of the transactions and said that she’s only “notified of transactions after they occur.” Loeffler, however, failed to answer the following questions Carter sent to her office:

What type of third party broker does Sen. Loeffler have?
Who is the broker? Is there a an advisor between the broker and Sen. Loeffler?
Why not a ‘qualified blind trust?’
Questions regarding her shares of Booking Holdings are now public – according to her report of shares sold and purchased- On March 6 purchased Booking Holding -she was with President Trump at the CDC when it purchased. Then days later March 10-11, Sen. Loeffler sold off $46,027 (this was just before President Trump restricted Travel from Europe to the United States? Can you explain why these shares were sold so soon after?
What is a general comment you can provide to constituents about the situation that you are now in and what can be done to prevent this from happening again?
Would you have done anything differently?

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Economy

Biden spends $1.65 trillion taxpayer dollars while vacationing in St. Croix

Published

1 month ago

December 30, 2022

Sara Carter Staff

While vacationing in the island of St. Croix for the holidays, President Joe Biden on Thursday signed into law the massive $1.65 omnibus spending package.

The whopping 4,155 pages was supported by only nine House Republicans and 13 Senate Republicans. Majority of criticism from the GOP includes concerns that the bill was rushed and crammed with wasteful spending by a lame-duck Democratic-dominated Congress. The recourse will punish American families by adding to the national debt and exacerbate inflation.

“Today, I signed the bipartisan omnibus bill, ending a year of historic progress. It’ll invest in medical research, safety, veteran health care, disaster recovery, VAWA funding — and gets crucial assistance to Ukraine,” Biden tweeted. “Looking forward to more in 2023.”

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell “praised the bill on the grounds that it represents a real decrease in discretionary spending. He presented it as a positive that nondefense spending jumped by only 5.5 percent, from $730 billion to $772.5 billion, amid an inflation rate of 7.1 percent” writes National Review.

“The bipartisan government-funding bill that Senators Shelby and Leahy have finished negotiating does exactly the opposite of what the Biden administration first proposed,” he said. “This bill provides a substantial real-dollar increase to the defense baseline . . . and a substantial real-dollar cut to the non-defense, non-veterans baseline,” McConnell insisted as negotiations were wrapping up.

House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, however, stated his strong disapproval of the bill before it even advanced. Affirming a letter from 13 House Republicans, McCarthy demanded the bill is reckless, irresponsible, and a “purposeful refusal to secure and defend our borders.”

For example, it failed to incorporate protections for Title 42, the pandemic policy that allows illegal immigrants to be expelled on a public-health basis, which currently hangs in the balance at the Supreme Court.

National Review adds, “The funding in the bill, which averted a federal government shutdown before the new year, includes an allocation of $45 billion in defense assistance to Ukraine. Some Republican priorities, such as Electoral Count Act reform and a bigger military budget, were nested in with Democratic appropriations, such as increased funding for Medicaid and food stamps.”