Senator Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) announced Wednesday that she and her husband will be liquidating their stock portfolio, and moving their holdings to exchange-traded and mutual funds. This move comes on the heels of countless attacks on Sen. Loeffler, claiming that she sold stock while having non-public information, via a January 24th briefing on coronavirus. Lawmakers and pundits on the Left and the Right erupted, accusing the Georgia Republican of insider trading, and claiming that Sen. Loeffler and her husband “profited off of a crisis.” Her family’s stocks are managed by outside firms and she does not give input or have any knowledge of the moves made, as Sen. Loeffler explains in The Wall Street Journal:
“As longtime executives at a Fortune 500 financial-services firm, my husband and I put this arrangement in place to insulate ourselves and our colleagues from these sorts of unfounded accusations. In financial services, there is always a risk of coming into contact with nonpublic material information, so the decision to separate ourselves from directing our investments—long before I was appointed to the Senate in January—was an easy one. It is part of what has enabled us to operate throughout our careers with the highest level of integrity and transparency,” Sen. Loeffler writes.
Before her time in the Senate, Sen. Loeffler’s resume included a 20 year career in the finance and investment industry, and she is no stranger to the proper procedure regarding stocks and investments. A political outsider, Sen. Loeffler contends that she did not come to Washington to make money, and donates her Senate salary to local charities.
In light of the attacks, Sen. Loeffler is putting her Georgia constituents first during COVID-19:
"I am taking action to move beyond the distraction and put the focus back on the essential work we must all do to defeat the coronavirus. Although Senate ethics rules don’t require it, my husband and I are liquidating our holdings in managed accounts and moving into exchange-traded funds and mutual funds. I will report these exiting transactions in the periodic transaction report I file later this month. I’m not doing this because I have to. I’ve done everything the right way and in compliance with Securities and Exchange Commission regulations, Senate ethics rules and U.S. law. I’m doing it because the issue isn’t worth the distraction. My family’s investment accounts are being used as weapons for an assault on my character at a time when we should all be focused on making our country safe and strong," Sen. Loeffler continued.
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Appointed by Governor Brian Kemp (R-GA) in January, Sen. Loeffler is Georgia's second female senator to date. The Georgia Republican faces a tough election in November with Georgia's "jungle-primary," and Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) throwing his hat into the Senate race.
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