Trail: Bill Frist stock sale scandal

My first Trail is about the current Bill Frist potential stock sale scandal.

WP: Senator Sold Stock Before Price Dropped (9/21/05)

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a potential presidential candidate in 2008, sold all his stock in his family's hospital corporation about two weeks before it issued a disappointing earnings report and the price fell nearly 15 percent.

WP: SEC, Justice Investigate Frist's Sale of Stock (9/24/05)

A spokesman said Frist's office has been contacted by both the SEC and the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan about his divestiture of the stock. HCA disclosed separately that it was subpoenaed by the same U.S. attorney's office for documents that were related to Frist's sale. Frist and HCA said they are cooperating.

Jonah Goldberg (9/24/05)

My guess is that this stock sale stuff will ultimately fizzle out, mostly because I doubt Frist is so stupid as to do what some allege. But I see nothing wrong with the appropriate agencies investigating Frist's blind-trust stock sale.

WP: Frist Issue Adds to GOP's Ethics Troubles (9/25/05)

...said Nicholas E. Calio, a former aide to both Presidents Bush. "To me, it's inconceivable that he [Frist] would sell stock based on inside information. He doesn't need the money."

...

Frist, asked in a January 2003 TV interview whether he should sell his HCA stock, replied that his assets were in a blind trust and, "as far as I know, I own no HCA stock." Referring to his trust and those of his family, he added: "It is illegal right now for me to know what the composition of those trusts are. So I have no idea."

Democrats.org (9/26/05?)

Frist has claimed he sold the stock in HCA Inc., founded by his father and brother (who still sits on the company's board), to avoid any conflict of interest. He has not identified what new conflict has arisen that did not exist for his previous 10 years in the Senate.

Statement by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (9/26/05)

An examination of the facts will demonstrate that I acted properly. I will cooperate with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York to provide the information they need as quickly as possible. My only objective in selling the stock was to eliminate the appearance of a conflict of interest. I had no information about HCA or its performance that was not publicly available when I directed the trustees to sell the stock.

Documents: Frist knew contents of blind trust (9/27/05)

Blind trusts are designed to keep an arm's-length distance between federal officials and their investments, to avoid conflicts of interest. But documents show that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist knew quite a bit about his accounts from nearly two dozen letters from the trust administrators.

If I read anything else that adds anything interesting to the discussion, I'll update this post with it.

Update: I just found this: Frist Stock Timeline. It's a lot more thorough than what I've presented above, so it may be a better resource. I'm not really shooting for a comprehensive review with these trails, though. I'm more shooting for a thorough overview of a subject. In that respect, I think I've delved a little too deep into the details with this first one. It's the first trail, though, so I expect that this feature will evolve as I post more.