Presidential contender Elizabeth Warren is demanding a federal investigation into whether President Donald Trump provided advance notice of the deadly strike on Iran's Gen. Qasem Soleimani to stock traders who may have profited illegally from the tip.
The Massachusetts Democratic senator made her demand in a letter dated Monday to the chairmen of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. It cited a Daily Beast report that Trump had told guests at his Mar-a-Lago resort days before the Jan. 3 strike to expect a "big" response to Iran "soon."
"If this report is true, it raises a number of troubling national security questions regarding President Trump's handling of classified and other sensitive national security information," Warren wrote in the letter, which was also signed by Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., the ranking member of the Senate subcommittee that oversees securities and investments.
The senators wrote that the president's Florida resort guests may have obtained "confidential market-moving information and had the opportunity to trade defense industry stocks or commodities or make other trades based on this information."
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The senators noted that defense stocks rose precipitously between the announcement of the attack and the close of trade on Jan. 3. They cited a 5% rise in Northrop Grumman, a 3.6% rise in Lockheed Martin, and a 1.5% rise in Raytheon.
"We have no way of knowing which individuals received information from President Trump in advance of the attack, what precise information they received and when they received it, or whether they may have made any securities or commodities trades based on that information," the senators wrote.
Federal law bars trading stocks based on material, nonpublic information. The senators asked the agencies to provide a briefing on the matter by Feb. 13 in addition to conducting an investigation.
Warren is in third place in national polls after sliding in recent weeks behind former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Voting in state primaries and caucuses begins early next month.
The seventh Democratic debate is scheduled for Tuesday evening in Des Moines, Iowa. A campaign spokesperson referred CNBC to Warren's Senate office.
Soleimani led the elite Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and was considered the second most powerful official in the country. Iran responded to the U.S. attack with missiles strikes on two Iraqi military bases housing American troops, which did not cause any casualties.
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The CFTC and the SEC declined to comment.
