Sen. Richard Burr, a Republican from North Carolina, temporarily stepped aside as chairman of the Senate intelligence committee on Thursday after the FBI served a search warrant for his cellphone as part of an ongoing insider-trading investigation tied to the coronavirus pandemic. 'I thought this was the best thing to do'He told reporters at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday he decided to step aside because he did not want the investigation to distract the intelligence committee from its work. A separate briefing was held Feb. 12 by the Senate health, education, labour and pensions committee, which Burr is a member of. He was first elected to the Senate in 2004 and chaired the Senate intelligence committee as the panel conducted its own investigation into Russian election interference in the 2016 presidential election. The committee recently issued a report supporting the intelligence community's conclusion that Russia had interfered on Donald Trump's behalf.

Source: CBC News May 14, 2020 17:14 UTC