Washington, D.C.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist came under increasing scrutiny this week as federal investigators looked into a stock trade he made this summer. Frist said he sold his stake in his family’s HCA Inc. hospital chain to avoid a conflict; critics had questioned how he could make unbiased decisions on health legislation while owning HCA stock. But at the time Frist unloaded his holdings, several insiders were also dumping HCA shares, and a month later, HCA issued a disappointing earnings forecast, sending the stock into a free-fall. Democrats, led by party chairman Howard Dean, called the trade “suspicious,” but Frist said he had no information “that was not available to the public.”
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