Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio will become the acting chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee after Republican Sen. Richard Burr stepped down amid an FBI investigation into his stock trades, CNN reported.

The information was announced by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

"I am grateful to Leader McConnell for his confidence in me to lead the Senate Intelligence Committee during Senator Burr's absence from the Chairmanship," Rubio said in a statement. "The Committee has long been one that conducts its work seriously, and I look forward to continuing that tradition."

FBI officials seized Richard Burr’s phone on the night of May 14, the Los Angeles Times reported. At the beginning of the year, Burr took part in private briefings on forecasts regarding the spread of coronavirus and its impact on the economy, including exchanges. As CNN reported earlier, in February, before the collapse of the main trading floors, Burr sold shares totaling up to $ 1.7 million. At the same time, he claimed that his decisions were based on publicly available information.

At the end of March, the Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission launched an investigation over Burr's transactions and several other senators who had access to classified information about the situation of coronavirus. By law, members of the US Congress could not use this information for financial gain.