Burr steps aside as Senate intelligence chair amid FBI probe

WASHINGTON » Republican Sen. Richard Burr temporarily stepped aside as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday after the FBI served a search warrant for his cellphone as part of an investigation into a well-timed sale of stocks tied to the coronavirus pandemic. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced the move, saying he and Burr had agreed that it was in the committee’s best interests. As he ducked into a Senate Republican lunch, Burr told reporters at the Capitol that he thought it was “the right thing to do.”

“This is a distraction to the hard work of the committee and the members, and I think that the security of the country is too important to have a distraction,” Burr said.

Burr, from North Carolina, said he would serve out the remainder of his term, which ends in 2023. He is not running for reelection. FBI officials showed up at Burr’s home with the warrant on Wednesday, two people familiar with the investigation said, marking a significant escalation into the Justice Department’s investigation into whether Burr exploited advance information when he unloaded as much as $1.7 million in stocks in the days before the coronavirus caused markets to plummet. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation. The search warrant was served on a lawyer for Burr, and FBI agents went to the senator’s home in the Washington area to retrieve the cellphone, a senior Justice Department official said. The decision to obtain the warrant, which must be authorized by a judge, was approved at the highest levels of the department, the official said.