Report: FBI Seizes Sen. Richard Burr's Phone In Investigation Of Coronavirus Stock Sell-Off

The FBI seized Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina’s cellphone on Wednesday night in order to investigate controversial stock trades linked to coronavirus, reports the Los Angeles Times, citing law enforcement officials.

Burr Turns Over Phone To FBI 

The Justice Department is investigating whether the Republican senator made stock trades based on information he learned on Capitol Hill as the novel coronavirus first struck the U.S.

Federal agents seized his cellphone on Wednesday night as part of the Justice Department’s investigation. Burr, who is also the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has turned over his phone to the agents, the Times said. 

FBI Serves Apple To Access Senator's Account 

The investigation looks at whether Burr has violated the law forbidding members of Congress from trading on insider information. 

Act 291 was signed into law on April 4, 2012 by then-President Barack Obama and is designed to combat insider trading. Burr voted against the law. 

A second law enforcement official said FBI agents served a warrant in recent days on Apple AAPL to obtain information from Burr’s iCloud account, the Times reported. 

The agents have reportedly used data obtained from Apple as part of the evidence used to obtain the warrant for the senator’s phone.

The law enforcement official told the newspaper that the Justice Department is examining Burr’s communications with his broker. 

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