President Trump's first friend in Congress is the latest to fall to the FBI.
Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) was arrested Wednesday on charges of securities fraud and making false statements to the FBI. Collins, who was the first member of Congress to publicly endorse Trump, surrendered to the FBI on Wednesday, reports NBC News.
Collins, still a consistent spokesman for the president, is accused of insider trading along with his son Cameron Collins and Stephen Zarsky, the father of Cameron's fiancée. The House Ethics Committee has been reviewing Collins' investments with Innate Immunotherapeutics since May 2017, The Buffalo News reports.
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Collins is one of the Australian biotech company's largest shareholders, and served on the board. During that time, prosecutors allege, he passed along private information that allowed his son and Zarsky to make "timely trades" that saved them more than $768,000 in losses.
Legal representatives for Collins said that the indictment doesn't specifically allege that Collins himself traded Innate stock. "We are confident he will be completely vindicated and exonerated," they told NBC News.
Despite the ongoing investigation, Collins was heavily favored to win re-election this November. Now, he's expected to appear in court Wednesday.
