Another Republican Crook Goes to Jail

A federal judge in Manhattan has scheduled a hearing Tuesday afternoon for Chris Collins, the Western New York congressman who is expected to enter a guilty plea in a case initially brought last year.

Collins has submitted his resignation, which will take effect when Congress meets in a brief session on Tuesday, according to a spokesperson for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Collins, 69, was indicted for insider trading in connection with the securities of Australian biotechnology company Innate Immunotherapeutics Ltd.


The indictment had also charged Collins's son, Cameron Collins, as well as Stephen Zarsky, the father of Cameron Collins's fiancée.

Similar hearings are scheduled for later in the week for Cameron Collins and Zarsky.

Collins has served in the House since 2012 representing a section of the state between Buffalo and Rochester, and was one of the first members of Congress in 2016 to officially endorse Donald Trump for president.

It is alleged in the indictment that the congressman, who served on the board of Innate and held 16 per cent of its stock, revealed to his son on June 22, 2017, the results of clinical trials involving an experimental multiple sclerosis drug in a flurry of phone calls, just minutes after being apprised of the trial results from Innate's CEO.

The trial results were made public a week later, with Innate stock losing 92 per cent of its value in off-exchange trading.

At the time of the indictment, Collins called the charges "meritless," while his spokesperson, echoing Trump's language, called the investigation "a partisan witch hunt."