Judge sets February 2020 trial date for GOP rep charged with insider trading

A federal judge in Manhattan set a trial date of Feb. 3, 2020, for Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), who was charged earlier this year with insider trading.

The Buffalo News reported that U.S. District Court Judge Vernon Broderick set the date for roughly 16 months out after Collins’s attorneys said they needed ample time to prepare for the trial.

Collins was not required to be in court on Thursday, and did not attend, according to multiple reports.

{mosads}The Justice Department in August charged Collins, 68, with securities fraud and lying to the FBI about his efforts to tip off family members with nonpublic stock information to help them avoid hundreds of thousands of dollars in investment losses.

Prosecutors alleged that the congressman, who served on Innate Immunotherapeutics’s board of directors, gave nonpublic information about drug trial results to his son, Cameron, to help him “make timely trades in Innate stock and tip others.”

Cameron Collins, 25, and his future father-in-law, Stephen Zarsky, 66, were also charged with insider trading and lying to federal investigators.

All three have pleaded not guilty.

The congressman initially suspended his re-election campaign in the wake of the charges, but reversed course last month, saying he planned to remain in the race.

Collins, a staunch ally of President Trump, is running for re-election against Grand Island Supervisor Nate McMurrary (D) in the race to represent New York’s 27th Congressional District, which encompasses Buffalo and other parts of Western New York.

If Collins were elected and opted to take his seat in the House, the trial would not take place until well into his next term.