Page 26 - bon-dia-aruba-20200515

A26 U.S. NEWS
Friday 15 May 2020
Burr steps aside as Senate intelligence chair amid FBI probe

By ERIC TUCKER, Burr has acknowledged
MICHAEL BALSAMO and selling the stocks because
MARY CLARE JALONICK of the coronavirus but said
Associated Press he relied "solely on public
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. news reports," specifically
Richard Burr, R-N.C., tem- CNBC's daily health and
porarily stepped aside as science reporting out of
chairman of the Senate Asia, to make the financial
Intelligence Committee decisions.
on Thursday after the FBI Burr was not the only law-
served a search warrant maker to sell off stocks be-
for his cellphone as part of fore the market slide.
an ongoing insider-trading Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a new
investigation tied to the senator from Georgia up
coronavirus pandemic. for reelection this year, sold
Senate Majority Leader hundreds of thousands of
Mitch McConnell an- dollars worth of stock in
nounced the move, saying late January and February,
he and Burr had agreed as senators began to get
that it was in the commit- briefings on the virus, ac-
tee's best interests. cording to records. So did
FBI officials showed up at fellow Georgia Sen. David
Burr's home with the war- Perdue, another Republi-
rant on Wednesday, two can lawmaker running for
people familiar with the reelection, and also Re-
investigation said Thurs- publican Sen. James Inhofe
day, marking a significant Sen. Richard Burr, R-NC, speaks during a virtual Senate Committee for Health, Education, Labor, of Oklahoma and Demo-
and Pensions hearing, Tuesday, May 12, 2020 on Capitol Hill in Washington.
escalation into the Justice Associated Press cratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein
Department's investigation of California
into whether Burr broke the warrant, which must be au- participate in stock market bought him some goodwill Burr's six-year term ends in
law with a well-timed sale thorized by a judge, was trading based on public in- among colleagues tap- 2023 and he does not plan
of stocks before the coro- approved at the highest formation "as Sen. Burr did." ping down immediate calls to run for reelection.
navirus caused markets levels of the department, The attorney, Alice Fisher, for him to step aside. He was first elected to the
to plummet. The people the official said. said that Burr welcomed a Senate records show that Senate in 2004 and chaired
spoke on condition of ano- The official could not dis- review of the stock sales, Burr and his wife sold be- the Senate Intelligence
nymity because they were cuss the ongoing investi- "which will establish that his tween roughly $600,000 Committee as the panel
not authorized to discuss gation publicly and spoke actions were appropriate." and $1.7 million in more conducted its own inves-
an ongoing investigation. to The Associated Press on Burr has denied wrongdo- than 30 transactions in late tigation into Russian elec-
The search warrant was condition of anonymity. ing but has also requested January and mid-February, tion interference in the
served on Burr's lawyers, The Justice Department an ethics review of the just before the market be- 2016 presidential election.
and FBI agents went to declined to comment. His stock sales. Burr is an amia- gan to nosedive and gov- The committee recently is-
Burr's home in the Wash- attorney did not respond to ble member of the Senate, ernment health officials be- sued a report supporting
ington area to retrieve the phone and email messag- and his quick call for an gan to sound alarms about the intelligence commu-
cellphone, a senior Justice es, but said in a statement Ethics investigation and will- the virus. Several of the nity's conclusion that Russia
Department official said. last month that the law is ingness to cooperate with stocks were in companies had interfered on Trump's
The decision to obtain the clear that any senator can authorities appears to have that own hotels. behalf.q

Michigan woman at center of transgender rights case dies

eral civil rights law protects community,” said Chase job discrimination on the
transgender people. Strangio, a member of basis of sex, protects trans-
Aimee Stephens’ death Stephens’ legal team. gender people. Some
was announced by the Her wife, Donna, thanked courts have read the lan-
American Civil Liberties the public for “keeping guage to include bias
Union, which represented my best friend and soul- against LGBT people as a
her in a lawsuit against mate in your thoughts and subset of sex discrimina-
R.G. and G.R. Harris Fu- prayers.” tion. A decision is expect-
neral Home. Stephens, 59, Stephens, a native of ed by late June.
had kidney disease and North Carolina, worked as More than half the states
was in hospice care. She an embalmer and funeral do not prohibit discrimina-
was in a wheelchair when home director at Harris fu- tion in employment be-
the court heard argu- neral home in Garden City. cause of gender identity or
ments last fall. She was fired in 2013 when sexual orientation, despite
In this Aug. 28, 2019, file photo, Aimee Stephens talks during in “Aimee did not set out to she told her boss that she the Supreme Court’s 2015
an interview in Ferndale, Mich. be a hero and a trailblaz- wanted to be known as Ai- ruling that made same-sex
Associated Press er but she is one, and our mee and would report to marriage legal across the
By ED WHITE after she no longer want- country owes her a debt work wearing a conserva- United States.
Associated Press ed to be recognized as a of gratitude for her com- tive skirt suit or dress. Rost expressed condo-
DETROIT (AP) — A Detroit- man died Tuesday before mitment to justice for all The issue for the Supreme lences to Stephens’ family
area woman who was the U.S. Supreme Court people and her dedica- Court is whether federal in a statement from attor-
fired by a funeral home could rule on whether fed- tion to our transgender civil rights law, which bars ney John Bursch.q