Politics

Insider trading and Congress: How lawmakers get rich from the stock market

How the fight to stop insider trading in Congress failed
VIDEO13:4013:40
How the fight to stop insider trading in Congress failed

Four U.S. senators were accused in March of using insider information about the coronavirus pandemic to profit in the stock market.

A couple of months later, the investigations into Sens. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., Dianna Feinstein, D-Calif., and James Inhofe, R-Okla., were closed. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., stepped down as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee amid the allegations.

Until the 2008 financial crisis, lawmakers were under few restrictions, and the public wasn't able to find out much about lawmakers' investments. In 2012, the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act was passed to clean up Washington. But recent events have yet again thrust the issue to the forefront.

How big an issue is insider trading in Congress? How does it work? And what's being done to stop it? Watch the video above to find out.