Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a wealthy finance executive married to the even wealthier founder of the company that owns the New York Stock Exchange, was appointed to the Senate by Georgia’s GOP governor to replace Sen. Johnny Isakson, who retired for health reasons, is potentially in legal trouble.
Now, I’m not saying whether she’s guilty or innocent; that’s for a jury to decide. Here are the facts:
In addition to previously revealed stock trading transactions, in which she and her husband dumped millions of dollars of stock just before the market crashed because of the coronavirus pandemic, this is what she did:
- Bought stock in an online travel company on March 6.
- Accompanied Trump to the headquarters of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (a federal agency) later that day.
- Sold that stock on March 10 and 11.
- Trump announced a European travel ban on March 11.
Now, this may have been just brilliant timing, or even very lucky timing, and maybe a very good defense attorney could get a carefully selected (i.e., sufficiently gullible) jury to believe that. But I don’t believe that. I suspect it was illegal.
And, while her seat previously was not thought in play in November (when she has to run in a special election to keep the seat), it now looks like Democrats might have a chance to take that seat away from the GOP, depending on how this plays with voters in Georgia.
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