Collins pardoned: A look at the Chris Collins insider trading scandal

WASHINGTON – President Trump on Tuesday pardoned former Rep. Chris Collins, who was imprisoned in October after pleading guilty to felony insider trading charges.

The early evening pardon prompted outrage from Collins' critics and dead silence from Trump's fellow Republicans.

WASHINGTON – As the Trump administration winds down despite the president's cries to the contrary, there are increasing signs that he will deliver parting gifts to some of his closest allies and maybe even his family members: presidential pardons.

But one big name remains missing from all the discussion over whom Trump might exonerate: that of the first member of Congress to endorse the outsider Republican candidate back in 2016, then-Rep. Chris Collins.

WASHINGTON – Rep. Chris Collins reported to a federal prison camp in Pensacola, Fla., Tuesday, and Cecily Molak of Menden planned to drink to that.

So culminated a saga that began with ethics complaints like the one Molak filed against Collins and that continued with Collins pleading guilty to insider trading charges and getting sentenced to prison.

WASHINGTON – Former Rep. Chris Collins is scheduled to begin serving his sentence Tuesday afternoon at Federal Prison Camp Pensacola, a Florida facility that, judging from those who know it, lives up to its name.

It is a bit like a prison and a bit like a camp.

WASHINGTON – Former Rep. Chris Collins appears so desperate to remain out of prison that his lawyers are striking a different tone than President Trump and embracing the words of Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Hours after Trump on Thursday posted a video in which he appeared to downplay the risk of Covid-19 to America's seniors, Collins' lawyers filed a brief in federal court in Manhattan that said his age – he's 70 – and pre-existing health conditions make him especially susceptible to contracting the virus.

WASHINGTON – Former Rep. Chris Collins wants his 26-month prison sentence converted to home confinement, but the top government prosecutor in the case is saying, in essence, lock him up – and right away.

"The public has an interest in seeing justice done in this case without further delay," wrote Audrey Strauss, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, in a court filing Wednesday. "It is time for Collins to begin his prison sentence."

WASHINGTON – Former Rep. Chris Collins is once again asking for a delay in his prison sentence – but new court papers filed late Thursday show that he's been working for months to avoid prison entirely.

In a motion filed in federal court in Manhattan, Collins' legal team asked that his prison sentence on insider trading charges be pushed back a fourth time – from Oct. 13 to Dec. 8.

WASHINGTON – Former Rep. Chris Collins has won a two-month reprieve from imprisonment, as the judge in his insider trading case moved the date that he must report to prison back to June 23.

That's the very day voters in Collins' former congressional district will go to the polls in a special election to replace him.

WASHINGTON – Lawyers for Rep. Chris Collins on Wednesday asked a federal judge to delay his imprisonment until June 23 because of concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.

"Mr. Collins is older than 65 and has additional risk factors, which place him at a high risk of contracting and suffering severe illness from Covid-19 if exposed to the virus," wrote Jonathan B. New, Jonathan R. Barr and Kendall E. Wangsgard, the lawyers for Collins. "It would be particularly dangerous for an elderly person with underlying health conditions like Mr. Collins to report for incarceration right now in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic that is ravaging the United States."

WASHINGTON – Former Rep. Chris Collins on Monday won five more weeks of freedom before he has to report to federal prison after pleading guilty to insider trading charges.

Without comment, U.S. District Court Judge Vernon S. Broderick approved a motion that Collins' lawyers filed Friday requesting the delay.

WASHINGTON – President Trump appeared to speak volumes about his relationship with then-Rep. Chris Collins in a speech on Long Island in July 2017.

"Chris – right from the beginning, he said Trump is gonna win," the president said as the first Republican House member to endorse him looked on, one face in a crowd of thousands. "Trump is gonna win. So I like him. I didn't like him that much before; now I love him."

WASHINGTON – The Shakespearean drama of Chris Collins' downfall didn't really end when a federal judge handed him a 26-month prison sentence in January.

In fact, some earlier chapters in that drama never were fully written until now, largely because they took place in Australia and New Zealand. That's about 9,000 miles from the White House lawn where, via cellphone in June 2017, Collins fatefully shared an insider stock tip with his son, Cameron.

Chris Collins made much of his status as an Eagle Scout both before and after a judge sent him to prison for 26 months for masterminding an insider-trading scheme.

But Collins didn't mention that among the many illustrious Americans who achieved scouting's high honor are a number of other Eagles who ended up as, well, jailbirds.

NEW YORK – Chris Collins, who once bragged about how many millionaires he made in Buffalo, ended up making three felons on a summer night in 2017: two in New Jersey and one, himself, on the White House lawn.

With cameras all around and a smoking gun called a cellphone in hand, Collins – then a candidate for a top job in the Trump White House – made a call that ensnared his son and his son's future father-in-law, Stephen Zarsky, in an insider trading scheme.

NEW YORK – Stephen Zarsky grew up with an abusive father, but went on to lead an honorable life until a young man with a stock portfolio – the son of a congressman and boyfriend of Zarsky's daughter – suggested that he break the law. And now Zarsky is a troubled old man, too sick to go to prison.

That's the portrait of Zarsky that emerged here Friday, via defense attorney Mauro M. Wolfe, U.S. District Court Judge Vernon S. Broderick and Zarsky himself.

NEW YORK – U.S. District Court Judge Vernon S. Broderick on Thursday faced the son of former Rep. Chris Collins in his Manhattan courtroom, and prepared to hand down a sentence in the insider trading scheme hatched by the former Congressman that ensnared the son.

In making the decision to put Cameron Collins on probation and not behind bars, the judge found a precedent not in a law book, but in a much older book.

Former Rep. Chris Collins was sentenced last week to 26 months in prison after resigning from Congress and pleading guilty to two felony insider trading charges last October. His co-conspirators — son Cameron Collins and Stephen Zarsky, Cameron's prospective father-in-law — will be sentenced Thursday and Friday.

Chris Collins is scheduled to report to prison on St. Patrick's Day. Following Collins' sentencing on Friday, several questions emerged on Twitter.

WASHINGTON – Not many 24-year-olds have big money invested in an obscure Australian biotech firm, but Cameron Collins – son of former Rep. Chris Collins – did.

And on the afternoon before sentencing the younger Collins on a felony insider trading charge, the judge asked prosecutors and defense lawyers whether Cameron's shares of Innate Immunotherapeutics stock were really products of his wealth – or his father's.

WASHINGTON – Federal prosecutors say Stephen Zarsky, the New Jersey man who took part in then-Rep. Chris Collins' insider trading scheme, deserves "a substantial term of incarceration," although not one as long as the 26 months a judge gave to the former congressman last week.

"The need to provide a just punishment for the offense counsels in favor of a substantial term of incarceration here," prosecutors said in a sentencing memo to the judge filed late Tuesday. "Zarsky exploited inside information for his own pecuniary benefit and for the benefit of his friends and relatives."

NEW YORK – Chris Collins got some poignant advice from the judge who sentenced the disgraced former Erie County executive and congressman to 26 months in prison on insider trading charges.

The judge's message? You can go home again. What's more, you should.

NEW YORK – Former Rep. Chris Collins is set to report to prison on St. Patrick's Day for up to 26 months – but it could have been much worse.

A 2005 Supreme Court ruling limited his sentence, and 2018 legislation that Collins supported may end up trimming it. A legal maneuver by Collins' defense team meant that his role with the Boy Scouts may have influenced the sentence more than a congressional ethics probe. And the violation he committed, insider trading, doesn't always meet strict punishment in America.

NEW YORK – Chris Collins cried so hard that many of his words got lost in his anguish.

But that act of contrition only meant so much to U.S. District Court Judge Vernon S. Broderick, who on Friday sentenced Collins to 26 months in prison for launching an insider trading scheme with a call to his son from a White House picnic in June 2017.

Cameron Collins deserves a prison sentence of at least 37 months, prosecutors said in a scathing letter to the federal judge who on Friday sentenced his father, former Rep. Chris Collins, to 26 months in prison on insider trading charges.

"By exploiting his father’s breach of trust for his own pecuniary benefit, Cameron committed a serious crime that itself warrants a substantial term of incarceration," Geoffrey S. Berman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and his assistants said in the letter.

WASHINGTON – Mocked for many months by protesters bearing a cardboard likeness that showed him in orange prison garb, former Rep. Chris Collins is scheduled to find out Friday if he will, literally or at least figuratively, wear it.

At 2:30 p.m. in Manhattan, U.S. District Court Judge Vernon S. Broderick will decide how to punish the four-term Republican congressman from Clarence, who resigned when he pleaded guilty to insider trading charges in October. The judge’s options range from probation to confinement at Collins' Florida home to prison.

WASHINGTON – The judge who will sentence Chris Collins on insider trading charges on Friday appears to have doubts about the defense argument that the then-congressman's crime was a rash and isolated act.

"How can the argument that Defendant Collins committed an emotional and impulsive act on June 22, 2017, be reconciled with his lying to law enforcement approximately 10 months later?" U.S. District Court Judge Vernon S. Broderick said in an order Wednesday.

WASHINGTON – Chris Collins didn't have to do it. He could have cashed in his million-dollar baseball card collection to cover the losses his son and his future in-laws suffered when the stock he pushed on them went bust. Or he could have cashed in his million-dollar coin collection.

Such tough talk fills the 11-page letter that Geoffrey S. Berman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and his assistants sent to the federal judge who is scheduled to sentence Collins on insider trading charges on Friday.

WASHINGTON – Chris Collins didn't just destroy his congressional career and put himself at risk of imprisonment when he called his son Cameron to share an inside stock tip in June 2017.

He destroyed his dream that his son would be his political heir.

WASHINGTON – Stephen Zarsky – ensnared in the Chris Collins scandal when he acted on a secret stock tip shared by the then-congressman's son – should spend six months in prison for insider trading, the U.S. Probation Office said in a report to the judge in the case.

That prison term should be followed by a year of supervised release, said the Probation Office, which also recommended that Zarsky pay a $20,000 fine.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Probation Office recommends that Cameron Collins, the son of disgraced former Rep. Chris Collins, spend six months in prison in connection with the insider trading scheme that his father launched with a phone call to his son from the White House lawn in June 2017.

That's half as long as the prison term the office recommended for the four-term Republican congressman, who will be sentenced Jan. 17. Cameron Collins will be sentenced Jan. 23.

Former Rep. Chris Collins pleaded guilty to insider trading charges last Oct. 1, but that by no means ended the case against him.

Instead, it merely set up an intense month of January in the Collins case. It all began earlier this week when the U.S. Probation Office recommended that the four-term Republican lawmaker from Clarence serve a prison term of a year and a day – far shorter than the 46 to 57 months recommended under sentencing guidelines.

WASHINGTON – Lock him up!

That's what dozens of former Rep. Chris Collins' constituents urged the judge in his insider trading case to do when he sentences the businessman/politician next week.

WASHINGTON – A Chris Collins that Buffalo never really knew emerges from the 170 pages of letters the former congressman's lawyers submitted in hopes of winning a soft sentence for a man who admitted passing an inside stock tip to his son.

Nowhere to be found in those pages is the brash politician who pushed his pet stock on the floor of the House of Representatives. Instead there's a kinder, gentler Chris Collins – a family man, a leader of Boy Scouts, a do-gooder who did wrong once but who doesn't deserve a harsh sentence for it.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Probation Office is recommending that former Rep. Chris Collins spend a year and a day in custody, followed by supervised release and a $200,000 fine, for the insider trading violations that he pleaded guilty to last October.

The proposed sentence is far more lenient than the maximum called for in Collins' plea agreement – which was four years and nine months.

WASHINGTON – Former Rep. Chris Collins closed out his political career in late December by repaying himself $146,393.71 in leftover campaign funds – without reimbursing his donors for the $15,400 they gave to his campaign committee early last year when he said he was innocent of insider trading charges.

Federal campaign documents filed late last month show Collins used that campaign money to repay himself for a loan he gave to his 1998 race for Congress against then-Rep. John J. LaFalce, a Democrat from the Town of Tonawanda.

WASHINGTON – Former Rep. Chris Collins, who built his career in politics on his self-proclaimed business acumen, will never again be able to serve on the board of a publicly traded company.

His son, Cameron, will have to cough up $634,299 in ill-gotten gains and interest.

WASHINGTON – An Australian stock tip will likely land former Rep. Chris Collins in federal prison in the United States, but it still hasn't put him in any legal jeopardy in the land down under.

More than a month after Collins pleaded guilty to insider trading charges in New York, sources in Australia said they see no signs that regulators in that country plan to take any legal action against him – even though his U.S. guilty plea seems to be a tacit admission that he violated Australian securities law, too.

WASHINGTON – Chris Collins' guilty plea and resignation from Congress haven't exactly led to a wave of reform sweeping across Capitol Hill.

Instead, efforts aimed at preventing congressional wrongdoing remain exactly where they were before Collins left Congress on Oct. 1.

WASHINGTON – New York State now has a law that could spell further legal danger to people who President Trump might pardon.

That list will not include felons such as former Rep. Chris Collins.

WASHINGTON – Former Rep. Chris Collins' guilty plea to two felony insider trading charges left him with one last-ditch hope:

His friend in the White House could pardon him.

WASHINGTON – Western New York's remaining federal lawmakers have a message for the residents of former Rep. Chris Collins' 27th congressional district:

You're not really totally without a congressman.

WASHINGTON – The Democrat who narrowly lost to then-Rep. Chris Collins last November on Wednesday asked the judge in the former lawmaker's insider trading case to give him a tough sentence – and take back his congressional salary and pension.

In a letter to U.S. Court Judge Vernon S. Broderick, Nate McMurray – who plans on running for Collins' open seat in an upcoming special election – acknowledged "some discomfort" in celebrating Collins' guilty plea last week.

WASHINGTON – Former Rep. Chris Collins Monday sent an email to friends and associate asking them to reach out to the judge in his insider trading case and argue for leniency.

But longtime Collins critics plan on writing to the judge, too – to press for just the opposite.

WASHINGTON – Chris Collins faces a likely criminal sentence of up to 57 months in federal prison, but his troubles don't begin and end there.

Collins also likely faces fines of tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, as do his son and his son's future father-in-law.

NEW YORK – Like father, like son. Just as former Rep. Chris Collins showed no emotion when pleading guilty to felony insider trading charges, neither did his son Cameron.

But the face and voice of Cameron Collins' future father-in-law told a much different story.

NEW YORK – They complained about then-Rep. Chris Collins long before prosecutors did.

And on Wednesday, a day after the Clarence Republican pleaded guilty to two felony insider trading charges and resigned in disgrace, many of the people who were on to Collins early said they were glad to see justice being done.

NEW YORK – Former Rep. Chris Collins Tuesday pleaded guilty to two felony counts tied to an insider trading scheme in a deal with prosecutors that calls for him to spend up to 57 months in federal prison.

In doing so, Collins – whose resignation from Congress took effect Tuesday – essentially admitted he had been lying when he insisted for the past 14 months that he was innocent.

WASHINGTON – Rep. Chris Collins breezed through "Buffalo Nite in Washington" last week as if it were just any other Buffalo Nite. He gripped. He grinned. He noted that the chicken wings seemed better this year than they were in earlier years.

Then, later in the week, he went to his office in the Rayburn House Office Building and collected some of his most prized personal possessions.

WASHINGTON — Chris Collins rode into politics promising to use his business know-how to make government work better.

But what he knew about one business — and what he did with what he knew — brought an end to the Clarence Republican's career in Congress Monday, as he resigned from office less than halfway through his fourth term.

Buffalo News Washington Bureau Chief Jerry Zremski, who broke the story of Rep. Chris Collins' insider trading case and relentlessly pursued it over the course of more than a year, spoke with NPR on Monday about his reporting on the soon-to-be-former congressman.

Zremski spoke with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly on Monday afternoon. Listen here:

Nearly fourteen months after Rep. Chris Collins was indicted, the Republican congressman has submitted his resignation letter. #NY27 was trending on Twitter in Buffalo and Washington, D.C., following Collins' resignation.

1st congressman to endorse Trump is reportedly going to plead guilty to insider trading tomorrow

2nd congressman to endorse Trump is fighting a 60-count corruption indictment

Trump's campaign manager is in jail

Trump's deputy campaign manager will be sentenced in a few weeks

— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) September 30, 2019

WASHINGTON – Rep. Chris Collins resigned Monday, a day before he is expected to plead guilty Tuesday to federal charges stemming from an insider trading scheme that prosecutors first detailed in an indictment nearly 14 months ago.

A spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said her office received Collins' resignation letter Monday. The aide said Collins' resignation will become effective Tuesday.

WASHINGTON – As expected, Rep. Chris Collins plans to appeal a federal judge's ruling that defense lawyers are not entitled to see more evidence to check if federal officials violated the lawmaker's constitutional rights in investigating the insider trading allegations he faces.

Lawyers for Collins, a Clarence Republican, filed a notice in federal court in Manhattan late Friday telling the judge that they would be appealing his ruling on evidence pertaining to the Constitution's "Speech or Debate Clause." That clause bars prosecutors and other federal officials from interfering with the legislative duties of members of Congress.

NEW YORK – The judge in the insider trading case against Rep. Chris Collins said Thursday that a trial should go forward as scheduled Feb. 3 – even if it means that only Collins' son and another co-defendant face jurors at that time.

Concerned that the congressman's appeals citing a constitutional clause could force a delay in the case, U.S. District Court Judge Vernon S. Broderick made clear that he was willing to first try the two other co-defendants: Cameron Collins and Stephen Zarsky.

NEW YORK — A federal judge has dealt a blow to Rep. Chris Collins' defense team, rejecting two motions aiming to force prosecutors to release more of the evidence they have against the Clarence Republican, who is charged with felony insider trading.

U.S. District Court Judge Vernon S. Broderick rejected the Collins' lawyer's motion seeking evidence that could conceivably indicate that prosecutors violated the congressman's rights under the Constitution's "Speech or Debate" clause.

WASHINGTON – The judge in the insider trading case against Rep. Chris Collins has made his biggest decision in the case so far this year, and while the judge kept that decision a secret for now, a bare-bones order he filed publicly appears to bode badly for the Republican lawmaker from Clarence.

In an order issued Friday and made public Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Vernon S. Broderick said that he had finished his opinion on two defense motions that aim to force prosecutors to turn over more evidence in the case.

The idea of splitting Rep. Chris Collins' criminal trial in two – with his son facing jurors before he does – came as a complete surprise to the Clarence lawmaker's defense team.

And his top lawyer is not at all happy about it.

WASHINGTON — Prosecutors in the felony insider trading case against Rep. Chris Collins this week raised the possibility of pushing back his Feb. 3 trial — so long as his son Cameron, as well as alleged co-conspirator Stephen Zarsky, still go to trial on that date.

Faced with the likelihood that the congressman's defense team will file appeals that could force the trial to be postponed, prosecutors sent the judge in the case a letter late Tuesday spelling out two options.

WASHINGTON – Rep. Chris Collins' top lawyer is continuing to bank on a constitutional clause as the linchpin of the lawmaker's defense against criminal insider trading charges, even after prosecutors narrowed the scope of the case earlier this month in hopes of skirting any constitutional concerns.

To hear Collins' attorney, Jonathan R. Barr, tell it, a superseding indictment that prosecutors filed in the case earlier this month is nothing but cover for the fact that they violated Collins' rights under the Constitution's speech or debate clause. That provision aims to shield legislative activity from undue interference from the other branches of government.

NEW YORK – Federal prosecutors Tuesday narrowed the criminal charges against Rep. Chris Collins in a new indictment that aims to sidestep a potential legal obstacle that could slow the case to a crawl.

The new court filing drops three of the securities charges that the Republican lawmaker from Clarence had been facing – but it renews five of the original eight securities fraud charges. Similarly, the new indictment drops two of the original eight securities fraud charges against the congressman's son, Cameron Collins, while leaving the remaining charges in place.

WASHINGTON — A year after Rep. Chris Collins got arrested on felony insider trading charges, he goes about his days as if he's running for re-election in 2020.

Long criticized for not mingling with his constituents, lately the Republican from Clarence has been hosting a steady stream of visitors and appearing at events across the heavily Republican 27th congressional district.

WASHINGTON — The House has only just begun cleaning up its act in the wake of last year's arrest of Rep. Chris Collins — and the proof lies in what lawmakers like Collins can still do, legally and without reproach.

That's the message a panel of ethics experts brought Thursday to a bipartisan House task force charged with drawing up new ethics rules based on lessons learned after the arrest of Collins, a Clarence Republican facing felony insider trading charges.

WASHINGTON — The House Ethics Committee Monday appointed two lawmakers to develop ethics rules stemming from last year's arrest of Rep. Chris Collins, a Clarence Republican.

A House resolution approved in June prohibits House members, officers and employees from serving as a director of a publicly traded company. In addition, that resolution says the Ethics Committee "shall develop regulations addressing other types of prohibited service or positions that could lead to conflicts of interest."

WASHINGTON – Getting arrested didn't made Rep. Chris Collins any poorer.

In fact, the value of the millionaire lawmaker's assets increased between 3.8% and 5.5% in 2018, the year he was charged with fraud, conspiracy and lying to an FBI officer in connection with an alleged insider stock trading scheme. He was worth somewhere between $40.4 million and $114.1 million at the end of last year, up from between $38.9 million and $108.1 million a year earlier.

The insider trading scandal surrounding Rep. Chris Collins exploded into the race for Erie County executive Friday, with the incumbent Democrat, Mark C. Poloncarz, inaccurately portraying an FBI document to attack his Republican opponent's campaign consultant.

The campaign of Republican Lynne Dixon, meanwhile, lashed back by noting various controversies in the Poloncarz administration. Other Republicans privately highlighted the fact that Poloncarz took more than $10,000 in campaign donations from a local businessman whose home and electronic devices were searched as part of the Collins probe.

WASHINGTON – The day after Rep. Chris Collins learned that the Australian biotech stock he had been touting might soon be worthless, his son and his fiancee's family dumped their shares – and according to newly discovered court papers, so did Christopher M. Grant, Collins' longtime political adviser.

So did two relatives of Michael Hook, Collins' top congressional aide at the time.

WASHINGTON – Rep. Chris Collins' lawyers don't want jurors to see a memo from his staff discussing legislation that could affect Innate Immunotherapeutics, the Australian biotech firm that's at the center of the criminal insider trading case against the Republican lawmaker from Clarence.

Mention of that memo at a court hearing earlier this month hearkened back to one of the earliest strands of the scandal that has enveloped Collins for more than two years. Congressional ethics experts have said Collins introduced legislation that could have benefited a company where he was the largest shareholder and served on the board of directors.

Here are bills introduced by Chris Collins that could have impacted firms like Innate Immunotherapeutics.

• The 340B Protection and Accountability Act of 2019: Introduced on March 6 of this year, this bill would overhaul a government program that offers discount drugs to hospitals and clinics that serve large numbers of poor people. The bill called for fees on the medical institutions that use the program – a move that could curtail its use and boost profits for drug companies.

NEW YORK — Like Hillary Clinton, Rep. Chris Collins used a private email account to do public business — and now, his lawyers are using that fact to defend him against insider trading charges.

In addition, the Collins legal team sees an Office of Congressional Ethics investigation of the Republican congressman from Clarence not as a problem, but as part of his defense.

WASHINGTON – For generations, lawyers representing indicted members of Congress have tried to turn an obscure clause in the Constitution into a get-out-of-jail-free card for their clients.

Now, attorneys for Rep. Chris Collins, a Clarence Republican indicted on federal insider trading charges, appear to be doing the same.

NEW YORK – Rep. Chris Collins on Friday was dealt his first courtroom defeat in the felony insider trading case against him, as a judge here rejected the Collins attorneys' request for more details about the charges he's facing.

The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Vernon S. Broderick highlighted a two and a half hour hearing that seemed to serve as a preview for what's to come in the case against the Clarence Republican, his son Cameron and his son's prospective father-in-law, Stephen Zarsky.

WASHINGTON — Prosecutors are defending the investigation that led to the arrest of Rep. Chris Collins, answering concerns that the probe may have violated an obscure constitutional clause in a way that could complicate or upend their case.

In a letter to the judge presiding over the felony insider trading case against Collins, prosecutor Geoffrey S. Berman took issue with a friend of the court brief filed by the chief counsel of the House of Representatives. The House's top lawyer indicated that federal investigators, in digging through emails between Collins and his staff, may have violated the Constitution's "Speech or Debate Clause," which aims to protect lawmakers from harassment from other branches of the federal government.

WASHINGTON – Rep. Chris Collins' campaign committee pretty much stopped fundraising in the first quarter of 2019, a year before his scheduled criminal trial on insider trading charges.

Collins raised only $5,000 between January and March, according to a federal campaign finance report filed earlier this week. In contrast, Collins, a Clarence Republican, raised $279,125 in the same period two years earlier, before a congressional ethics investigation and his August 2018 arrest.

WASHINGTON – Lawyers for the House of Representatives are raising concerns about the evidence the Justice Department gathered to bring criminal insider trading charges against Rep. Chris Collins, warning that the investigation could have violated a key constitutional provision aimed at protecting lawmakers from being harassed by other branches of government.

In a brief filed this week in the federal court in Manhattan where Collins is scheduled to go on trial next February, the House's general counsel shows sympathy for an argument the Collins legal team made in court papers two months ago.

Federal investigators searched the personal electronic devices and online accounts of Rep. Chris Collins' closest associates as they put together an insider trading case against the congressman, prosecutors said in newly filed court papers.

Some of the people whose devices were searched “engaged in suspicious trading" in the Australian biotech stock that's at the center of the criminal case against the congressman, prosecutors said.

WASHINGTON – House Democrats on Friday passed a sweeping ethics and campaign reform that takes a veiled shot at Rep. Chris Collins, in that it would ban lawmakers from serving on the boards of public corporations.

Collins was the only House member to do that, serving on the board of an Australian biotech firm called Innate Immunotherapeutics until last spring. Federal prosecutors in New York later charged Collins with several felonies in connection with an alleged insider trading scheme based on knowledge Collins gleaned from his role on Innate's board in 2017. Collins, a Clarence Republican, maintains that he is innocent.

Rep. Chris Collins' lawyers appear to be honing a new argument to press against the federal prosecutors in New York who charged the Republican lawmaker from Clarence with insider trading:

It's none of your business.

The two sides in the criminal case against Rep. Chris Collins won't meet in court again until September under a schedule laid out late Monday by the judge presiding in the case.

In a court order, U.S. District Court Judge Vernon S. Broderick scheduled hearings on the evidence in the case for Sept. 5 and 6 – if those hearings proved to be necessary.

WASHINGTON — House Democrats on Friday unveiled ethics legislation that would go far beyond the new rules they passed a night earlier, which block indicted lawmakers such as Rep. Chris Collins from serving on House committees and bar all House members from serving on boards of public corporations as Collins has.

While the measure passed late Thursday merely sets the rules for the new House to follow, the bill announced Friday offers a dramatic reform of American politics.

WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday evening adopted broad new rules governing how it operates — and sanctioning indicted lawmakers such as Rep. Chris Collins, a Clarence Republican.

The new rules, which aim to open up the lawmaking process to more input from committees and individual lawmakers, also mark the new Democratic majority's first attempt at an ethics crackdown.

WASHINGTON — Democrats plan to take control of the House Thursday by changing the way it does business.

By doing so, they will be handing down a rebuke to Republican Rep. Chris Collins of Clarence as well as a partial victory to Republican Rep. Tom Reed of Corning.

WASHINGTON – Rep. Chris Collins probably won't be able to fulfill one of the most basic duties of a congressman – serving on a committee – in 2019.

And the year after that, he may well be distracted not just by one court case, but by two, one right after the other.

WASHINGTON – Rep. Chris Collins' legal troubles could drag on even deeper into the next Congress, thanks to a federal judge's ruling in Manhattan late last week.

U.S. District Court Judge Katherine Polk Failla on Friday delayed the Securities and Exchange Commission's civil case against Collins and his co-defendants until after their criminal case is resolved.

WASHINGTON – Rep. Chris Collins would not be able to regain his seat on the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee under proposed House Republican Conference rules set to be considered when lawmakers meet this week.

Under the proposed rules, GOP lawmakers who are indicted on felony charges that could land them in prison for more than two years must resign their committee assignments.

WASHINGTON – Rep. Chris Collins appears to have won his bid for re-election, but he finished third in a more ignoble contest: The battle of the indicted.

Voters in New York, California and New Jersey on Tuesday all re-elected lawmakers who have faced federal criminal charges. But Collins, a Clarence Republican who is charged with felony insider trading, had by far the narrowest win.

Frieda Sabo and Jackie Miller take opposite sides of an argument that's sweeping New York's 27th Congressional District.

Sabo, like many Republicans in this deep-red swath of suburbs and small towns between Buffalo and Rochester, wants to send Rep. Chris Collins back to Congress.

Rep. Chris Collins' indictment on felony insider trading charges hasn't stopped three prominent conservative groups that have backed him for years from continuing to do so.

Since Collins' Aug. 8 indictment, the National Rifle Association gave the Clarence Republican an A+ rating. The National Federation of Independent Business, which endorsed Collins before his indictment, this fall gave him its Guardian of Small Business Award. And the New York State Right to Life Committee offered Collins a glowing endorsement.

WASHINGTON – Rep. Chris Collins' legal troubles nearly stopped his campaign fundraising in its tracks, but he still had more than $1 million on hand as of Sept. 30 to wage an aggressive campaign against Democrat Nathan McMurray.

That's the bottom line of the third-quarter campaign finance report the Collins campaign filed late Sunday. McMurray had not yet filed his report as of late Monday, but his campaign said last week that he raised more than $475,000.

NEW YORK — Rep. Chris Collins won't stand trial on criminal insider trading charges until Feb. 3, 2020, more than halfway through his next congressional term if the embattled Republican from Clarence wins re-election in November.

U.S. District Court Judge Vernon S. Broderick set that trial date Thursday after the Collins legal team asked for more time to prepare a defense. Prosecutors, in contrast, said they would be ready to go to trial by the middle of next year.

Rep. Chris Collins this week gave his first interviews since re-entering the race for Congress three weeks ago, indicating on radio station WBEN that he hopes to win re-election and continue to serve in Congress while fighting criminal insider trading charges.

But when asked by The Buffalo News if Collins would commit to serving in the next Congress — and vow that he wouldn't resign once re-elected — his campaign spokesman would not answer the question.

WASHINGTON – Democratic congressional candidate Nathan McMurray pulled in more than $475,000 in campaign cash between July 1 and Sept. 30, with the vast majority of it coming after the Aug. 8 arrest of his Republican opponent, Rep. Chris Collins of Clarence.

McMurray's campaign announced the fundraising total Monday, saying that after campaign expenses were taken into account, it still had $425,243 on hand, as of the end of the third quarter.

Rep. Chris Collins' next court date is set for Thursday, but the Republican from Clarence won't be there.

Collins, his son Cameron and Cameron's prospective father-in-law — all indicted on federal insider trading charges — have asked to be excused from the status conference in the criminal case. And on Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Vernon S. Broderick ruled that the defendants can skip that court appearance.

A small circle of people close to Rep. Chris Collins dumped their shares in Innate Immunotherapeutics just before the stock price crashed in June 2017. One who didn't get out was Collins' top aide Michael J. Hook.

Hook lost money on shares he sold days after the crash. But one year later, Collins did a favor for his chief of staff.

WASHINGTON – The race between Republican Rep. Chris Collins and Democrat Nathan McMurray is now a "toss-up," the RealClearPolitics website said Wednesday as it upgraded McMurray's chances in what had been a race that "leans Republican."

RealClearPolitics did not explain its ratings change, which came nine days after Collins re-entered the race. Collins suspended his campaign Aug. 11, three days after federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged him with several federal felonies in connection with an alleged insider trading scheme.

WASHINGTON — The Republican charged with electing more Republicans to the House said Tuesday that Rep. Chris Collins — indicted on federal insider trading charges — won't need help from the party's fundraising committee to win re-election.

But Rep. Steve Stivers of Ohio, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, didn't sound particularly thrilled with Collins' decision last week to reverse himself and run again in New York's 27th congressional district.

Rep. Chris Collins returned to the campaign trail last weekend despite the criminal indictment hanging over his head – and amid a lingering controversy over his first television ad.

Collins attended the Ontario County Republican Committee's second annual Constitution Day Dinner in Geneva on Friday, as well as the Newstead GOP Sportsman Extravaganza a day later.

Many politicians seem obsessed with their image, but not Rep. Chris Collins.

In fact, it seems the Clarence Republican – indicted on charges of federal insider trading – didn't leave his own picture on his first campaign ad long enough.

Over a month after Chris Collins was indicted on charges of insider trading and 37 days since he announced he would not run for re-election, the Clarence Republican says he will remain on the ballot, "actively campaign" for his 27th Congressional District seat and serve if re-elected, Bob McCarthy and Jerry Zremski reported. 

Readers had questions about if and how someone under indictment could still run for office. Buffalo News Washington Bureau Chief Jerry Zremski answered your questions.

Voters who bother to listen to robocalls recently got a preview of the coming battle for the House seat in New York's 27th Congressional District between indicted Republican Rep. Chris Collins and a Democratic outsider that few had heard of before this year.

A menacing, mechanical male voice asks voters four questions about the Democratic candidate, Nate McMurray, accusing him — inaccurately — of "causing our trade deficits to double," backing organizations that want to repeal the Second Amendment and supporting House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.

A day after refusing to address his future plans, Rep. Chris Collins said Wednesday he will “actively campaign” for his 27th Congressional District seat and serve if re-elected, despite facing charges of insider trading.

“The stakes are too high to allow the radical left to take control of this seat in Congress,” Collins, a Clarence Republican, said in a statement. “Their agenda is clear. They want to reverse the recently enacted tax cuts, impose Canadian style healthcare, inflict new job killing regulations and impeach President Trump.

Rep. Chris Collins refuses to say whether he will resign or continue in Congress should he win reelection on Nov. 6.

A day after announcing he will remain a candidate despite his indictment on insider trading charges, spokeswoman Sarah Minkel on Tuesday said Collins will not comment on his course of action. As a result, voters asked to retain the 27th Congressional District for Republicans by supporting Collins will not know if they are casting ballots for a full-time congressman who will serve while under indictment or a placeholder before a 2019 special election.

WASHINGTON – Rep. Chris Collins plans to cooperate with local Republican leaders who are trying to find a way to get the indicted Clarence congressman replaced on the November ballot.

That's what Collins had to say in his first interview since he suspended his campaign Aug. 11, which aired on WIVB-TV on Monday.

WASHINGTON – The Australian company that Rep. Chris Collins dragged into the headlines just did what many deeply embarrassed, permanently humiliated people would do if they could.

It changed its name.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Chris Collins' troubles deepened Thursday, as the House Ethics Committee said it would ramp up an investigation that could result in his expulsion from the House after completion of the federal criminal case against him.

The ethics panel's move could prove to be moot — in that Collins has suspended his re-election campaign and Republican leaders are trying to find a way to replace the Clarence Republican on the ballot in the November election.

WASHINGTON — With a federal indictment hanging over his head in Manhattan and Republican leaders struggling to find a way to replace him on the November ballot in Western New York, Rep. Chris Collins returned to work Tuesday evening in the nation's capital.

Collins, a Republican from Clarence, cast four votes as the House returned to work after a five-week summer recess. But he did not use either a doorway or an elevator that lawmakers frequently use to enter the House chamber, meaning he could not be stopped and asked questions about his Aug. 8 indictment.

WASHINGTON — "Alice in Wonderland."

"Abhorrent."

Republican county leaders heard from the candidates, one by one, and liked what they heard.

And the more the GOP county chairs thought about it, the more they decided it's not the right time to throw any of those nine candidates into the legal thicket created by Rep. Chris Collins' indictment and subsequent decision to suspend his re-election campaign.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a leading contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, has offered the boldest proposal yet for preventing members of Congress from becoming the next Rep. Chris Collins.

To make sure lawmakers like Collins won't partake in illegal insider stock trading schemes, members of Congress should be barred from owning any individual stocks, Warren said Tuesday.

BATAVIA — Republican leaders in the 27th Congressional District Tuesday met with nine people who want to be elected to Congress, only to end their marathon interview session by slowing down their selection process for a candidate to replace the indicted Rep. Chris Collins.

"We're no longer in a rush like we thought we were," Erie County Republican Chairman Nicholas Langworthy said after the county chairs ended their deliberations shortly before 9 p.m., six hours after the interviews began.

Update: Radio commentator David Bellavia announced Tuesday morning he was withdrawing his name from consideration to replace Chris Collins on the November ballot.

Eleven Republicans who want to go to Congress will speak with party leaders in the 27th Congressional District in a marathon meeting at Batavia Downs on Tuesday, setting the stage for the selection of a potential nominee later this week.

WASHINGTON – One of Rep. Chris Collins' last imprints on Congress could be tougher ethics legislation.

Republicans and Democrats alike are discussing new ethics rules of varying sorts, with one possibility being a narrow measure – blocking House members from sitting on corporate boards – this fall, and a broader ethics effort next year.

WASHINGTON – Rep. Louise M. Slaughter didn't live to see Rep. Chris Collins' perp walk last Wednesday, but she might have set it in motion.

It went little-noticed at the time, but early last June, Slaughter went into a rage over a report in the Hill newspaper. The report said Collins, at a dinner with congressional colleagues, urged them to invest in Innate Immunotherapeutics, the tiny Australian biotech that counted the Republican congressman from Clarence as its largest investor.

The fight to replace the indicted Rep. Chris Collins on the election ballot is likely to end up in court, officials from both major political parties said Monday.

While Republicans have not yet settled on a way to remove Collins from the ballot in New York's 27th Congressional District, Erie County Democratic Chairman Jeremy Zellner signaled that his party would challenge any effort if Collins moves to another state or if he opts to run for another elected office.

Three days after Rep. Chris Collins, his son, Cameron Collins, and Stephen Zarsky, the father of Cameron Collins' fiancee, were indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit security fraud, Collins announced that he was suspending his re-election campaign.

Readers had questions about this after the news broke Saturday morning, so we collected the most commonly asked ones in this Q&A:

The eight county Republican chairs in New York's 27th congressional district will meet Tuesday night in Batavia to begin discussions on removing the indicted Rep. Chris Collins from the ballot and, they hope, replacing him with a new GOP candidate.

The county chairs will meet at Batavia Downs, Republican sources said.

WASHINGTON – Several of the prominent people who bought stock in Innate Immunotherapeutics after Rep. Chris Collins touted it to them – from former Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff to local businessmen to two members of Congress – still hold shares of a company that traded at 22 cents a share Friday, down from a peak last year of about $11.61.

That information comes from an Australian share registry reviewed by James Wheeldon, an Australian securities lawyer and Innate investor who has been highly critical of the company, as well as from congressional records.

WASHINGTON — "Collins loses millions as stock collapses – but others may have gotten out early" — The Buffalo News, June 27, 2017.

It seems, in retrospect, that a clairvoyant wrote that story, but no. With the help of Google, an Australian blogger and an old source from Buffalo, I did.

WASHINGTON — In dollar terms, Rep. Chris Collins' legal problems are at least five times worse than the money issues faced by the Democrat who wants to replace the Clarence Republican in Congress.

Collins, who was charged last week with 11 felony counts related to an alleged insider trading scheme, spent $253,938 on legal fees in the year ending June 30, federal records show.

Rep. Chris Collins, who faces multiple felony insider trading charges, said his decision not to seek re-election is "a tough thing, a tough thing."

But it's a tough thing, too, for Republican leaders in New York's 27th congressional district.

“Another day, another fake story.”

That was the line last summer in a campaign message signed by U.S. Rep. Chris Collins. It referred to The News’ coverage of the Clarence Republican and his investment in an Australian biotechnology company.

Rep. Chris Collins, a Republican from Clarence facing insider trading charges, said Saturday he would not run for re-election.

Collins said that he would serve out his term, however, which lasts until Jan. 3, 2019.

WASHINGTON – Some 9,929 miles from a New York courtroom where prosecutors charged Rep. Chris Collins with insider trading, there's another set of laws that might seem to put the Clarence Republican in more legal jeopardy.

But when asked about the U.S. government's case against Collins, spokespeople for both the Australian securities regulator and the Australian Stock Exchange said Friday they had not taken any action against Collins regarding his investments in Australian biotech firm Innate Immunotherapeutics – and they gave no indication they plan to do so.

WASHINGTON – As a longtime director and shareholder of an Australian company, Rep. Chris Collins has been sort of a worldly guy.

But now the world is focused on him.

Rep. Chris Collins says the insider trading charges filed against him are “meritless,” and the Clarence Republican vows to go to trial to clear his name.

But in a federal court where more than 90 percent of criminal cases end up in plea deals, clearing his name won’t be easy for Collins or his two co-defendants, according to defense attorneys who spoke to The Buffalo News about the case.

NEW YORK – Innate Immunotherapeutics, the Australian biotech firm that Rep. Chris Collins once compared to one of his children, appears to have disowned him amid the investigation that led to the lawmaker's indictment on securities fraud charges.

The Sydney-based company released a terse statement late Wednesday – Thursday morning in Australia – in which it tried to distance itself from the Clarence Republican.

Rep. Chris Collins once told supporters to disregard news reports about apparent conflicts of interest involving one of his stock investments.

But on Wednesday morning, he was the one breaking what he called "very bad news" to supporters via email: He was about to be charged with a crime.

Jerry Zremski, The News' Washington, D.C., bureau chief will appear on "The Rachel Maddow Show" at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday on MSNBC.

Maddow and Zremski will discuss the federal indictment of Rep. Chris Collins on charges of insider trading.

Rep. Chris Collins was a leading trending topic on Twitter on Wednesday morning following his indictment on insider trading charges.

Tweets included commentary from a national perspective, some predictable partisan shots, as well as some from those who didn't mind pointing out Collins' support for President Trump. Others tweeted highlights of the indictment document.

In the days after Australian biotech firm Innate Immunotherapeutics' stock crashed, a spokeswoman for Rep. Chris Collins told The News that neither the congressman, his son, his daughter nor his chief of staff dumped their stocks before the price collapsed.

Federal prosecutors now say that wasn't exactly true.

Rep. Chris Collins of Clarence was arrested on insider trading charges Wednesday, federal prosecutors in New York announced.

Collins' son, Cameron Collins, and Stephen Zarsky, the father of Cameron Collins' fiancee, also were arrested. All three surrendered to federal authorities in New York City, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York said.

On his first full day home after 10 weeks in prison, Chris Collins acknowledged he is a changed man.

Unlike all those months when the former Erie County executive and congressman denied the insider trading charges lodged against him, he readily admits his wrongdoing. Now, he seems to relate to the "other half" – like the prisoners he considers his close friends  – the kind of people he never encountered at his homes in tony Spaulding Lake or Marco Island, Fla.