Documents unsealed in DOJ probe of Sen. Burr's stock trades

WASHINGTON (WTVD) -- Newly unsealed court documents from the Department of Justice say "well-timed trades" enabled Sen. Richard Burr, R-NC, to avoid more than $80,000 in losses while making more than $160,000 in stocks during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The probable cause affidavit was part of a probe into whether Burr illegally sold stock because of insider knowledge of the pandemic before the general public did.

The DOJ closed the investigation in 2021 and did not pursue any charges.

Burr is retiring at the end of his term.

In 2020, the Justice Department also separately closed without charges investigations into stock trading by multiple other senators, including Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California, Republican Kelly Loeffler of Georgia and Republican Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma. They, too, had come under scrutiny for transactions made in the weeks before the coronavirus sent markets downhill.