GOP Rep. Chris Collins to plead guilty to insider trading

Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) is expected to plead guilty in an insider trading case in which he was indicted last August, according to Bloomberg.

It is not clear exactly what charges the GOP lawmaker will plead guilty to, or whether he will resign from Congress. Collins’s office referred questions to his attorneys. 

Collins, his son Cameron Collins and Stephen Zarsky, the father of Cameron Collins’s fiancée, were arrested in August 2018 and pleaded not guilty on charges of trading on nonpublic information about an Australian biotech company. Cameron Collins and Zarsky also plan to change their pleas, according to Bloomberg.

{mosads}Chris Collins, the first sitting representative to endorse President Trump in the 2016 Republican primaries, said after his arrest that he would “continue to fight the meritless charges brought against me and I look toward to having my good name cleared of any wrongdoing.”

Collins was narrowly reelected in the 2018 midterm elections, winning by less than 1 percentage point after defeating his 2016 opponent by more than 30 points and his 2014 opponent by nearly 40 points. Collins’s 2018 opponent, Nate McMurray, announced in August that he will seek a rematch with Collins in 2020.

“Many party loyalists continue to view him favorably, even more than his Republican challengers. He retains this support in part due to the tactics he employs; the depths he and his hateful political forces will stoop to,” McMurray said.

Lawmakers who are convicted of felonies are not allowed to vote in Congress, though they can retain their seats.

A Federal Elections Commission filing in April indicated no individual donors gave to Collins in the first quarter of 2019.