Breaking news out of New York where we’re seeing reports that Republican Rep. Chris Collins (NY-27) was arrested and charged with securities fraud:
NBC News: Rep. Christopher Collins of New York has been arrested and indicted on charges tied to securities fraud. He surrendered himself to the FBI this morning.
Press conference by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District at noon. –@jonathan4ny
— Tom Winter (@Tom_Winter) August 8, 2018
Rep. Collins, who was on the board of directors of an Australian biotech company, allegedly passed on insider information of said company to his son, who then traded on that information:
Here's the indictment for Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY). Feds announced insider trading charges against him and his son's this morning. Collins was an early supporter of Trump's presidential campaign. https://t.co/nifkIfl3rX
— Mike Hayes (@michaelhayes) August 8, 2018
Collins’ son and the father of of son’s fiancée were also charged:
NY Rep. Christopher #Collins (R), his son and the father of son's fiance to face insider trading charges, related to an Australian biotechnology company. Collins is on its board of directors, the US Atty for the S. District of NY says. Presser at noon. #InsiderTrading
— Rocco Aloe (@Rocco_FNC) August 8, 2018
According to the indictment, Collins was interviewed by the FBI back in April, and said he did not pass on inside information to his son:
Indictment notes that @RepChrisCollins was interviewed by FBI in April pic.twitter.com/TykHpG2YE5
— Josh Lederman (@JoshNBCNews) August 8, 2018
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The indictment says there are emails and call logs to back up the charges, however:
MORE on #Collinsarrest: According to criminal complaint, @RepChrisCollins began unloading Innate Immunotherapeutics, Ltd. (“Innate”) stock after learning "nonpublic info" that a clinical trial had failed. @WKBW pic.twitter.com/YRZuerxKe6
— Ali Touhey (@Ali2e) August 8, 2018
Collins was also a very early supporter of then candidate Trump, which we’ll hear a lot about today no doubt:
.@RepChrisCollins was the first member of Congress to endorse Trump. https://t.co/f5WoqQ0Hyn
— David P Gelles (@gelles) August 8, 2018
And right on cue:
Please RT: Well, well, well… one of @realDonaldTrump's main defenders/apologists, @RepChrisCollins, has been arrested for charges related to securities fraud. Time to turn #NY27 blue—support @Nate_McMurray! (cc: @Rosie and @MarkRuffalo) https://t.co/adJH5VlbkZ
— Joseph Amodeo (@josephamodeo) August 8, 2018
Back in February, the Cook Political report declared the race safe for the GOP “unless Collins is indicted.” Oof:
Clearly @CookPolitical was on to something #NY27 https://t.co/UpObNAfefv pic.twitter.com/HKWn4eWabk
— Alex Morgan (@abmorgan) August 8, 2018
This should be a safe GOP seat so we expect there will be some maneuvering to make sure it stays that way:
FWIW, #NY27 voted for Trump by 24% & has a @CookPolitical PVI of R+11. Grand Island Supervisor Nate McMurray (D) had $81k on hand at the end of June. https://t.co/HlK5UPDwRV
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) August 8, 2018
We’ll find out more at the noon press conference.
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