WASHINGTON - Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., revealed Wednesday that his wife bought stock in Gilead Sciences - which makes an antiviral drug used to treat the coronavirus - on Feb. 26, 2020, before the threat from covid-19 was fully understood by the public and before it was classified as a pandemic by the World Health Organization.
"The senator ought to have an explanation for the trade and, more importantly, why it took him almost a year-and-a-half to discover it from his wife," said James Cox, a professor of law at Duke University. "Did she give him a new birthday gift of a Mercedes, and he all of a sudden said, 'Where did this money come from?'"
Though the size of the trade was small, said Joshua Mitts, an expert in securities law at Columbia University, it nonetheless "may have exploited knowledge of the impending pandemic." Remdesivir was backed on Feb. 24, 2020 - two days before the purchase - by a WHO assistant director general, who described it as the only known drug that "may have real efficacy" in treating the novel virus.
time to pay it back and then resign
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Insider trading is insider trading. You don't get a pass if you lose money. Politicians can no longer trade on inside info.