Panel drops senator’s stock-trade case

ATLANTA — The U.S. Senate Ethics Committee dismissed complaints Tuesday from watchdog groups questioning whether U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., engaged in “potential insider trading” after reviewing recent stock trades made on her behalf.

The committee “did not find evidence that your actions violated federal law, Senate rules, or standards of contact,” wrote Deborah Sue Mayer, the committee’s chief counsel. “Accordingly, consistent with its precedent, the committee has dismissed this matter.”

The dismissal of the complaints, filed by Common Cause and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, comes weeks after the Department of Justice closed an investigation into Loeffler’s stock transactions, leading her supporters to declare “vindication.”

Financial disclosures showed that Loeffler or her husband, Jeff Sprecher, sold between $1.3 million and $3.1 million in stocks from Jan. 24-Feb. 14, and purchased up to $250,000 in stocks for Citrix, which provides work-from-home software, and Oracle, the computer technology firm.

The newly appointed Republican’s portfolio came under scrutiny when a large number of stocks that she or her husband owned were sold off shortly after she attended a senators-only briefing on Jan. 24 on the coronavirus.

Loeffler has said that the meeting included no private information and all stock trading on her behalf is handled by financial advisers who act independently and without her input. And she denied that trading on her behalf had violated any laws or U.S. Senate rules.