Justice Department Closes Investigations Of Loeffler, 2 Other Senators Over Stock Trades

A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, who is in a competitive reelection race, said in a statement that the Justice Department’s decision “affirms what Senator Loeffler has said all along – she did nothing wrong.”

Win McNamee / Pool via AP

The Justice Department has closed investigations into stock trading by Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California, Kelly Loeffler of Georgia and Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, according to people familiar with notifications sent to the senators. The senators came under scrutiny for transactions made in the weeks before the coronavirus sent markets downhill.

The developments indicate that federal law enforcement officials are narrowing their focus in the stock investigation to Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C, the former Senate Intelligence Committee chairman. Agents showed up at his Washington-area home almost two weeks ago with a warrant to search his cellphone.

Senate records show that Burr and his wife sold between roughly $600,000 and $1.7 million in more than 30 transactions in late January and mid-February, just before the market began to dive and government health officials began to sound alarms about the virus. Burr has denied any wrongdoing.