New York, NY (WBEN) Congressman Chris Collins was in a New York City courtroom Thursday for a status conference in his insider trading case. He says he still hasn't made up his mind on whether he will run for re-election.
The Justice Department filed a superseding indictment a few weeks back, and the judge asked attorneys to file motions to dismiss based on speech and debate grounds by September 23rd.
As for his re-election bid, Collins tells News 4 WIVB "I've not decided if I'm going to run for re-election. If I do, I am confident I will win." Collins says polling shows he would win a primary in a landslide and defeat Nate McMurray by a greater margin next year because McMurray has gone further left than last year.
Collins notes he doesn't know the timing will be in making a decision. "The primary is June, this is September. There's no rush. It will take its course," adding his opponents are the ones who want to know his decision.
In court, Collins repeated his not guilty plea to a rewritten indictment before emerging from the Manhattan courthouse to express his optimism about beating the charges and his confidence about re-election prospects should he decide to run.
Collins said he looks forward to being exonerated on charges he leaked information about a biopharmaceutical company as friends and family dodged $800,000 in stock losses. Prosecutors recently streamlined the criminal charges in a superseding indictment to speed the trial.
But it became clear at Thursday's hearing that thorny legal issues might force a trial delay.
U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick asked defense lawyers to let him know by Sept. 23 whether they want to immediately appeal some of his rulings to the federal appeals court in Manhattan. If they do, it could force a delay to a trial scheduled to start Feb. 3.
Prosecutors said the charges stem from Collins' decision to share with his son insider information about Innate Immunotherapeutics Ltd., a biotechnology company headquartered in Sydney, Australia, with offices in Auckland, New Zealand. Collins was the company's largest shareholder, with nearly 17% of its shares, and sat on its board.
According to the indictment, Collins was attending the Congressional Picnic at the White House on June 22, 2017, when he received an email from the company's chief executive saying that a trial of a drug the company developed to treat multiple sclerosis was a clinical failure.
Collins responded to the email saying: "Wow. Makes no sense. How are these results even possible???" the indictment said.
It said he then called his son, Cameron Collins, and, after several missed calls, they spoke for more than six minutes.