SCRUTINIZED

Sen. Feinstein Was Questioned by FBI, Handed Over Docs on Husband’s Stock Trading

The senator’s office said she complied with officers looking into Richard Blum’s stock trading shortly after a classified Senate briefing on the coronavirus threat.

The office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has confirmed that she answered “basic questions” from the FBI about her husband Richard Blum’s stock transactions in late January, The New York Times reports. Feinstein’s spokesperson reportedly confirmed that she handed over documents that showed she had no involvement in her husband’s trades. Blum, who founded the investment firm Blum Capital Partners, sold off shares in biotech firm Allogene Therapeutics Inc. worth between $1.5 million and $6 million within days of a classified Senate briefing on Jan. 24 on the threat of the coronavirus pandemic, which triggered a stock market crash.

Three other senators, Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), James Inhofe (R-OK), and Richard Burr (R-NC), offloaded hundreds of thousands of dollars in stocks within the same time period. On Thursday, Burr stepped down as chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee amid a federal investigation of his trading activities following reports that he and his wife sold up to $1.7 million in stocks.