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.