confidential briefings about the severity of the coronavirus in his positions on senate intelligence and health committees. according to a memo from attorneys for the s.e.c., on february 13th, 2020, senator burr possessed material non-public information concerning covid-19 and its potential impact on the u.s. and global economies. when he called his own stock broker at 8:54 a.m. directing the sale of $1.65 million in stock. virtually, all the stocks he owned. at 11:32 a.m. that same morning, burr then called his brother-in-law, gerald, a trump appointee to the national mediation board. the two men talked for just 50 seconds. the s.e.c. claims he hung up and immediately called two stock brokers directing the sale of several stocks in his wife's account. though, his lawyer said in a court filing that he had planned his trades days in advance and