WATCH: Released Video Shows Indicted GOP Lawmaker at the White House - Exactly When Prosecutors Say He Committed Insider Trading

Matthew Chapman
and
AlterNet
08 August 2018

Early Wednesday morning, Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) was arrested by the FBI, along with his son Cameron and his son's fianceé's father Stephen Zarsky, on charges of insider trading. And new video footage released by Buffalo CBS affiliate WIBV-TV appears to corroborate details in the indictment.

The indictment in United States v. Christopher Collins et al, brought in the Southern District of New York, alleges that Collins, one of the largest shareholders of the Australian biotechnology company Innovative Immunotherapeutics, gave his son advanced warning that the company's massive clinical trial of a therapy for multiple sclerosis had failed, before they had issued a press release, and that his son proceeded to divulge the information to family and friends.

One of the key allegations made in the indictment is that on the evening of June 22, 2017, at 7:16 p.m., Collins placed a phone call to his son in which he "told him, in sum and substance, that MIS416 had failed the Drug Trial," and that his son proceeded to sell 1,391,000 shares of stock over the next three days, allowing him "to avoid approximately $570,900 in losses."

On Wednesday afternoon, WIBV released footage of Collins during the exact period the indictment alleges him to have placed the call. It does indeed show him making a call — while standing on the White House lawn.

Collins was the first member of Congress to publicly endorse Trump and is one of his staunchest legislative allies.

According to CNN's Manu Raju, if Collins is convicted on all charges, he could face a maximum of 150 years in prison. He has denied the allegations against him, calling the charges "meritless."