The article does not mention the charges are trumped up.   Because they are not and you wrong on the law in two separate ways. Congressmen can freely trade insider information learned as members of Congress.   They are not exempt from trading insider information learned as a member of the board of a company.   OR AT LEAST THEY USED TO BE.   You cite several outdated articles that predate the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act which outlawed this in 2012.   The revision to this law that you point to STILL doesn't make it legal AND explicitly doesn't apply to members of Congress.   Actually you seem to wrong three separate ways.  Amazing. Back to Chris Collins.....  The SEC complaint says that in June 2017, Rep. Collins passed on nonpublic information about Innate Immunotherapeutics’ INNMF, +25.00% IIL, -1.67% unexpectedly negative drug-trial results to his son. Collins was a board member of the company.  This is classic insider trading.