Pro-Trump GOP Representative Chris Collins is expected to accept a guilty plea stemming from insider trading charges against him.
According to Fox News:
Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., is expected to plead guilty later this week to insider trading charges, court documents indicate, marking an about-face for the embattled lawmaker who pleaded not guilty earlier this month.
The court documents say there will be a “change of plea hearing” when they appear in a Manhattan courtroom Tuesday. That appears to indicate that Collins, his son, Cameron, and his son’s prospective father-in-law, Stephen Zarsky, will plead guilty.
Collins originally pleaded not guilty to a slew of charges brought against him last year and maintained his innocence when he was arraigned earlier this month on a superseding indictment that prosecutors hoped would speed up the case against the New York Republican.
The superseding indictment against Collins streamlines the charges against the lawmaker by keeping only five of the original eight securities fraud counts from the original indictment. The new indictment also drops two of the original eight securities fraud charges against the congressman’s son while leaving the remaining charges in place.
The original charges related to an Australian biotechnology company where Collins was a board member.
