Congressional staff may have tipped Wall Street to a change in health care policy, and prosecutors are now seeking evidence for a grand-jury probe, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Evidence is sought from the House Ways and Means Committee as well as top congressional health care aide Brian Sutter, staff director of the committee’s health care subpanel.
The subpoenas are related to criminal and civil investigations examining whether anyone in the government illegally passed along nonpublic information about the health policy that ended up in the hands of traders, according to people briefed on the matter. The probe was sparked by a 2013 Wall Street Journal report that detailed how health-insurance stocks jumped moments before the government announced news favorable to those companies relating to Medicare payments. […]
It is highly unusual for the Justice Department to issue subpoenas to members of Congress or their aides, given sensitivities and legal barriers connected with the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of government. These subpoenas are the first formal requests for information to Congress involving a federal insider-trading investigation in nearly a decade.