Georgia Senator Cleared of Ethics Charges for COVID-19 Related Trades

On Tuesday, June 16, 2020, the bipartisan Senate Select Committee on Ethics (“Ethics Committee”) determined that Georgia Senator, Kelly Loeffler, did not break the law or Senate rules when she and her husband, Jeff Sprecher, chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, traded millions of dollars in stocks after early Senate briefings on the coronavirus.

On March 2020, the two watchdog organizations Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and Common Cause filed complaints against Loeffler with the Ethics Committee as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice following reports that several senators sold securities after closed-door Senate briefings on the COVID-19 outbreak.  The trades in question included buying between $166,000 and $415,000 in shares of DuPont de Nemours, a chemical company manufacturing protective equipment in high demand due to the pandemic.  Loeffler maintained that the trades were executed by her third-party broker without her prior knowledge.

Deborah Sue Mayer, Chief Counsel of the Ethics Committee, sent letters to Loeffler and the two watchdog organizations on Tuesday explaining that “[b]ased on all the information before it, the committee did not find evidence that [Loeffler’s] actions violated federal law, Senate rules, or standards of conduct.  Accordingly, consistent with its precedent, the committee has dismissed this matter[.]”  The Department of Justice also dropped its probe into Loeffler several weeks ago.