Sen. Richard Burr’s sale of up to $1.7 million in stocks shortly before the recent market crash was one of the lawmaker’s only market-beating trades since record keeping began eight years ago, according to a new study. On a single day, Feb. 13 of this year, Burr unloaded a significant portion of his net worth — a departure from his typically low-volume trading history.
— NPR, 4/16/20

Normally when a Republican screws up, Democrats and their media collectively demand a resignation. However, this didn’t happen to Senator Burr with the normal desire for a public head on a platter. While Burr wasn’t the only one, he and others could have been ripe for political blackmail and that just may be what’s happened….

Republican-Led Review Backs Intelligence Findings on Russian Interference
A new Senate report undercuts claims by President Trump and his allies that Obama-era officials sought to undermine his candidacy by investigating Russia’s 2016 election meddling.

More recently, Mr. Burr, who slowly pushed his bipartisan investigation forward despite calls from Mr. Trump to disband it, has come under intense scrutiny for a decision to liquidate much of his stock portfolio in February, before the coronavirus pandemic ravaged the financial markets.
— New York Times, 4/21/20

Self-proclaimed intellectually superior liberal Democrats HATE to be proven wrong, especially by Republicans, thus they never let the Mueller Report pseudo-exoneration go. They also love any opportunity to label something as “bipartisan” when damaging to Republicans and/or beneficial to Democrats. And now that the United States may finally be turning the Coronavirus corner and the economy may actually rebound prior to the 2020 Election, it’s time to bring back Russia, Russia, Russia.

The real question is whether the Obama administration and its officials held over by the new administration fabricated a tale about the Trump campaign’s complicity in Russia’s hacking. Did they peddle that tale to the FISA court while willfully concealing key exculpatory evidence? Did they continue the investigation under the guise of counterintelligence after Trump was elected, in the hope of finding a crime over which he could be impeached? Did they consciously mislead an American president about whether he was under investigation? Did they purposefully suggest in public testimony that the president was a criminal suspect, while privately assuring him that he was not one? And finally, when the Trump-Russia collusion nonsense was collapsing in a heap, did they open a criminal obstruction case — based on an untenable legal theory and facilitated by a leak of investigative information that was orchestrated by the just-fired FBI director — in order to justify continuing the probe under the auspices of a special counsel?
— Andy McCarthy, 4/22/20

With the pending results of the Durham investigations and possible indictments, be very wary of the timing of the Intel Committee’s actions providing cover for all facing possible prison time.

Mr. Durham has been interviewing intelligence analysts about the central conclusion of that 2017 report, examining whether Obama-era intelligence officials hid evidence or manipulated analysis about Moscow’s covert operation. Critics of the assessment have focused on the fact that the National Security Agency had a lower level of confidence than the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. on the conclusion that Mr. Putin supported Mr. Trump’s election.

But the Senate report, from a committee led by Republicans, could shore up the intelligence agencies’ conclusions.

So we can thank Richard Burr (and fellow Senate Intel Republicans Jim Risch, Marco Rubio, Susan Collins, Roy Blunt, Tom Cotton, John Cornyn, Ben Sasse) for giving Hillary Clinton, Democrats, and their media pundits something to talk about again through November.

The power of public office carries with it the perennial desire to use the power for financial gain. If financial disclosure reports don’t paint an adequate—and importantly, accurate—picture of a government official’s financial interests, the public can’t know if those officials are acting impartially.
— Campaign Legal Center, 10/26/18

Like most databases, you only get out of them what was input.

For example, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Representatives Adam Schiff (D-CA), Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Steve Cohen (D-TN) and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) released their transactions for 2019 0r 2020.

Given the noise, it’s also telling who’s blown off the public’s right to know in 2019 and 2020 and declined to file a transaction report….

New Hampshire Senator Bernie Sanders (I)

New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D)

New York Senator Charles Schumer (D)

California Representative Kevin McCarthy (R)

North Carolina Senator Richard Burr (R)

Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler (R)

California Representative Maxine Waters (D)

California Senator Dianne Feinstein (D)

Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar (D)

Washington Senator Patty Murray (D)

Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe (R)

Texas Representative Frederica Wilson (D)

Texas Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee (D)

Illinois Representative Rashida Tlaib (D)

New York Representative Jerrold Nadler (D)

Virginia Representative Don Beyer (D)

Ohio Representative Jim Jordan (R)

Missouri Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D)

South Carolina Representative James Clyburn (D)

Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley (D)

Virginia Senator Mark Warner (D)

North Carolina Senator Mark Meadows (R)

California Representative Barbara Lee (D)

Florida Representative Alcee Hastings (D)

Maryland Senator Steny Hoyer (D)

Illinois Representative Bobby Rush (D)

Utah Senator Mitt Romney (R)

New Hampshire Senator Susan Collins (R)

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham (R)

New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D)

Florida Representative Donna Shalala (D)

New Hampshire Senator Elizabeth Warren (D)

Virginia Senator Tim Kaine (D)

New Jersey Senator Cory Booker (D)

California Senator Kamala Harris (D)

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar (D)

Maybe some were too busy impeaching President Trump, but you get the idea and see the pattern.

As far as the pundit/media catcalls for Republican senators to resign, let’s be consistent (although we know that won’t happen) and acknowledge this as a bipartisan issue come back to bite….

President Obama quietly signed S. 716, which repealed a requirement of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (the bipartisan bill aimed at halting insider trading by members of Congress) requiring roughly 28,000 senior government officials to post their financial information online. Both chambers of Congress quickly — and near silently — approved the repeal legislation at the end of last week by unanimous consent, just before heading home to their districts.
— The Hill, 4/15/13

Let’s see EVERY Capitol Hill politician’s books. Seeing how well Democrats project, it’s a safe bet that outing a few Republicans is to mask the possible unethical activities of a whole lot more Democrats who blew off their opportunity to be open with the American people.