Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY), who headed up the congressional relations side of the Trump transition, is showing just how much of a chip off the old corrupted block he is, and he could be taking some of his Republican colleagues with him. Collins has been neck deep in what looks suspiciously like insider trading. This might all sound vaguely familiar to you, and it should, because of Collins' role in creating controversy for Tom Price, former Georgia representative and now HHS secretary, during his confirmation hearings. Price was under fire for his history of profiting from stock buys in companies that he was writing legislation to benefit. One of the major buys under scrutiny was in Innate Immunotherapeutics, an Australian biotech firm, a company he found about through, you guessed it, Collins.
It wasn't just Price, though. Collins first came under fire when he was caught by reporters bragging in a phone call about how many millionaires he made by telling them about this company. A company whose "stock's price has nearly tripled since [last summer], as Congress, with significant help from Collins, passed legislation that could benefit makers of experimental drugs such as Innate Immunotherapeutics." Because some of the people he bragged about making millionaires, congressional colleagues allege were them.
Collins, President Trump’s chief defender and unofficial spokesman on Capitol Hill, told a group of House GOP colleagues over dinner earlier this year that he had urged colleagues to invest in Innate Immunotherapeutics and made them plenty of money in the process, said one GOP lawmaker who was present for the conversation.
“He said that he’s made members money,” the GOP lawmaker told The Hill.
“Members of Congress?” a reporter asked.
“Yeah, on his stock tip,” the lawmaker replied.
“If you get in early, you’ll make a big profit,” Collins reportedly told another group of House Republicans last summer, according to a second GOP lawmaker who was part of the same 2012 class as Collins.
Asked if he ever heard Collins brag about making colleagues money, the second lawmaker replied: “I’ve heard those kinds of phrases.”
According to The Hill, half a dozen members of Congress confirmed that blabbermouth Collins was talking up the stock all the time, trying to get them to invest and just generally going on and on and on about how rich he's gotten off the stock. That in itself isn't a problem, but the fact that he worked on legislation that benefited the company he's a major shareholder in is a problem and has netted him a House ethics probe.
Democrat Louise Slaughter (D-NY) is pushing for an investigation beyond the House Ethics Committee. She has "asked the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the House Ethics Committee and the Office of Congressional Ethics" to look into potential insider trading that could possibly extend beyond Collins to a number of his colleagues who did buy in. Reps. Mike Conaway (TX) and John Culberson (TX), Doug Lamborn (CO), Billy Long (MO) and Markwayne Mullin (OK) are new investors in Innate, but they're arguing that they decided to invest after they heard about it during the Price hearings, because of course a Republican is going to focus on the fact that he made a shit ton of money off of it rather than the fact that it is potentially illegal.
They're all grifters, every damned one of them.