.By Mary Clare Jalonick and Eric Tucker
Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., stepped aside as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday after the FBI served a search warrant for his phone as part of an ongoing insider-trading investigation tied to the coronavirus pandemic.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced the move, saying he and Burr had agreed it was in the Senate's best interests.
FBI officials showed up at Burr's home with the warrant on Wednesday, marking a significant escalation into the Justice Department's investigation into whether Burr broke the law with a well-timed sale of stocks before the coronavirus caused markets to plummet,
The Justice Department declined to comment. His attorney did not respond to phone and email messages, but said last month that the law is clear that any senator can participate in stock market trading based on public information "as Sen. Burr did."
Financial markets closed, mail delivery stopped, and federal offices shut down as the nation paused to remember the life of President George H.W. Bush, who will be memorialized during a state funeral at Washington's National Cathedral on Wednesday.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018.
The famously stoic president of France may have conceded on fuel taxes to protestors, but his decision was most likely a product of circumstance, not an act of altruism. In this case, said Erin Zaleski of the Daily Beast, Emmanuel Macron had no one with whom he could negotiate. But small concessions, like a fuel tax moratorium, won't be enough to satisfy protesters who are wreaking havoc in the streets of Paris.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2018.
The man who spent years behind the lens during President George H.W. Bush's time as president remembers him as a man of honor. David Valdez, chief official White House photographer from 1989 to 1993, reminisced about his years observing the former president on Cheddar Monday, just days after Bush passed away at age 94.
President Trump is opening himself up to allegations of obstruction by publicly dangling a pardon in front of his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, "Proof of Collusion" author Seth Abramson told Cheddar on Monday.
President Trump lauded his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires as "extraordinary" after the two sides agreed to a pause in tariff increases for 90 days. But Hagar Chemali, CEO of Greenwich Media Strategies, said investors shouldn't start the ticker tape parade just yet.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Monday, Dec. 3, 2018.
Stock markets and the federal government will close on Wednesday as the U.S. marks a national day of mourning for George H.W. Bush, the 41st president. Bush died at his home in Houston Friday night. He was 94.
Michael Cohen's latest revelations about President Trump's ties to Russia have left the U.S. leader isolated at the G20 summit and "looking like a petulant child" on the world stage, Rick Wilson, author of "Everything Trump Touches Dies," told Cheddar Friday.
