Despite reports that a well-known U.S. attorney was fired amid his investigation into Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price’s stock trades when he was a member of Congress, Price said he is unaware of any federal probe.
Price, when asked during an appearance on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” Sunday about the ProPublica report that Preet Bharara was overseeing the stock trade investigation before he was fired, said he knew nothing about it.
During his confirmation process, Democrats grilled the former congressman about stock purchases he made prior to introducing legislation that would financially benefit companies in which he owned shares. The Wall Street Journal reported that Price traded more than $300,000 in health-related stocks when he served on a health subcommittee of the House Committee on Ways and Means.
An unnamed source told ProPublica that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York was looking into Price’s trades when Bharara was let go. Although it’s common for new administrations to replace officials with their own appointees, the publication noted Bharara’s dismissal was surprising because Trump initially asked him to stay on.
Bharara flamed the fires by saying in a tweet that he didn’t resign and instead was fired.
I did not resign. Moments ago I was fired. Being the US Attorney in SDNY will forever be the greatest honor of my professional life.
— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) March 11, 2017
In a follow-up tweet he said he knows what the Moreland Commission must have felt like. That board was put together in 2013 by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to investigate corruption in New York politics but was disbanded the following year.
A White House spokesperson reportedly didn’t respond to ProPublica’s questions about whether Trump or anyone in his cabinet was aware of the federal investigation into Price’s stock trades.
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