Chris Collins: Pro-Trump politician jailed for insider-dealing from White House picnic

Chris Collins, a former New York Congressman and Donald Trump ally, was sentenced to more than two years in prison after admitting to an insider trading scheme, joining more than a dozen of the president's allies and advisors facing criminal indictments and jail time.

The Republican — the first sitting federal politician to publicly endorse the president — pleaded guilty to conspiracy and making false statements in October and resigned from his seat that day. He was sentenced in US District Court to 26 months.

He was arrested in August for sharing information about a biotech firm that he received in an email while at a White House picnic in 2017.

Collins was also a board member of the company, Australia's Innate Immunotherapeutics Ltd, and he owned more than 16 per cent of its shares.

The email revealed that the company's only product had failed in clinical trials. According to federal prosecutors, he passed the information to his son, setting off a chain of insider information trading that led them to dump shares and erode the company's share value.

Collins narrowly won his re-election in 2018 after federal authorities announced the charges against him.

In a statement announcing the charges, US Attorney Geoffrey Berman said the "charges demonstrate again that no matter what the alleged crime, or who allegedly committed it, we stand dedicated to the pursuit of justice, without fear or favour."

Earlier this week, prosecutors sought a sentence of 57 months, arguing that Collins violated the public's trust "when he committed insider trading and when he then committed a second crime to cover it up."

The US Probation Office suggested Collins only serve a sentence of a year and a day.

As he received his sentence in US District Court in New York, he said: "I violated my core values ... I am standing here, probably the last time I will do anything in public. I left Buffalo. I cannot face my constituents."

After becoming the first sitting congressman to endorse the president, Collins — whose district encompasses a large swath of western New York — joined Mr Trump's transition team.

In office, the congressman adopted the president's aggressive routine, calling Mitt Romney a "self-serving egomaniac" and blaming Democrats for inflaming "partisan rhetoric".

Earlier this week, Duncan Hunter, the second sitting officials to endorse Mr Trump, stepped down from Congress after admitting to using $250,000 of his campaign funds for personal expenses. The California Republican is expected to be sentenced in March.

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