US Congressman in FBI net on insider trading charges
New York Republican Rep Chris Collins was arrested by the FBI on Wednesday alongside his son and the father of his son’s fiancée on insider trading charges. For those who have followed Collins closely in Congress, Vox.com reported on Thursday.
Collins, an important figure in Washington politics under President Trump, was the first congressional Republican to endorse the President’s candidacy, he’s one of Trump’s close confidants on Capitol Hill and is almost always toeing the Republican line.
He’s known for being loose-lipped about closeddoor meetings with Trump, and is often found holding court with congressional reporters. He likes to say he prefers to exhaust the press, rather than the other way around. It’s gained him some name recognition — in New York state politics and definitely in Washington.
Before Trump, Collins wasn’t a household name. He’s not a member of the House Republican leadership team, and despite once being discussed as a political contender for a gubernatorial bid in New York in 2010, he hasn’t been much of a political player outside his western New York district.
He held a seat on the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has purview over public health, but he’s not known as a policy mastermind. (House Speaker Paul Ryan pulled Collins from the committee in light of the arrest.) Yet in both of Republicans’ major policy fights, Collins appeared to always be around the circles that mattered. Also, it’s been a joke among reporters, staffers, and lawmakers in Washington that Collins would one day end up in jail. Now, two months before a challenging midterm elections for Republicans, as Democrats attack the GOP for being the party of corruption, Collins is embroiled in federal charges for insider trading. Collins was arrested on charges relating to connection to the Australian biotech company Innate Immunotherapeutics. As the company’s largest shareholder, Collins allegedly shared private insider information with his son Cameron Collins, who then passed on information to his fiancee’s father, Stephen Zarsky.