LEGAL BRIEFS Los Angeles Times Files Lawsuit to Search Senator’s Cell Phone
The Los Angeles Times recently filed a federal lawsuit requesting to unseal the warrant that permitted federal authorities to search Sen. Richard M. Burr’s cellphone as part of the FBI investigation into stock trades just as the coronavirus pandemic began to rise across the country. According to the Times, the warrant, which was served in May 2020, represented an acceleration in the federal investigation into whether Burr violated a law preventing members of Congress from trading on insider information they have garnered from their official work. Burr sold a significant portion of his stock portfolio in February 2020, following coronavirus briefings from U.S. public health officials. In January, Burr’s lawyers announced the Justice Department had dropped its investigation. The lawsuit, which was filed on Feb. 24 by attorneys with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press on behalf of the Times, argued that the newspaper and public have a “particularly strong” interest in being able to inspect the records.