Marco Rubio chosen to replace Richard Burr as acting Senate Intelligence Committee chairman
Sen. Burr steps aside as Intelligence Committee chair amid stock trading investigation
Republican Sen. Richard Burr says the temporary decision is to prevent distractions from the investigation; Mark Meredith reports.
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Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has been tapped to temporarily replace Republican Sen. Richard Burr as acting chairman of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
“I am grateful to Leader McConnell for his confidence in me to lead the Senate Intelligence Committee during Senator Burr’s absence from the Chairmanship,” Rubio said in a statement. “The Committee has long been one that conducts its work seriously, and I look forward to continuing that tradition.”
Along with House and Senate leaders and the top Democrat and Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Rubio will now have access to some of the highest-level secrets in Congress. A former Republican presidential candidate who eventually endorsed Donald Trump in 2016, he has also worked with Democrats on the panel on its investigation into Russian election interference and other matters.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that he was a “natural choice” and that congressional oversight was needed “to keep partisan bias and political interference out of these sensitive activities.”
Burr stepped aside as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee amid an investigation into his stock sales during the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak.
Friday was his last day in the position.
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McConnell announced the development in a brief statement Thursday, saying: “Senator Burr contacted me this morning to inform me of his decision to step aside as Chairman of the Intelligence Committee during the pendency of the investigation. We agreed that this decision would be in the best interests of the committee and will be effective at the end of the day tomorrow.”
Later, Burr confirmed that he would be stepping aside. “This morning, I informed Majority Leader McConnell that I have made the decision to step aside as Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee until this investigation is resolved,» Burr said in a statement Thursday. «The work the Intelligence Committee and its members do is too important to risk hindering in any way. I believe this step is necessary to allow the Committee to continue its essential work free of external distractions.”
The move comes after federal agents on Wednesday served a search warrant to Sen. Burr, R-N.C., at his Washington-area home. A law enforcement official familiar with the investigation confirmed to Fox News that FBI agents also confiscated the senator’s cellphone.
According to a senior DOJ official, the warrant was served on Burr’s lawyer and was approved at the highest levels of the department.
It’s a time of turnover and tension in the nation’s intelligence community.
Trump has fired, ousted or moved aside multiple officials in the last year.
