BREAKING: GOP Rep Resigns Ahead Of Guilty Plea

The Washington Post reports:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) received a letter of resignation from Republican Rep. Chris Collins on Monday, a senior Democratic aide said. The resignation will be effective when the letter is officially filed at a scheduled House session Tuesday.

Collins, President Trump’s first congressional supporter, is expected to plead guilty to insider-trading charges on Tuesday, following allegations last year that the Republican from New York schemed with his son to avoid significant losses on a biotechnology investment.

Collins, 69, allegedly tipped off his son to confidential information about an Australian biotechnology company, Innate Immunotherapeutics, that he learned as a member of its board. Collins and several others used the information to avoid more than $700,000 in losses, according to prosecutors.