Washington D.C., USA - March 14, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Capitol Building
2. Washington Monument

FILE: New York City, USA - Feb 2018 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
3. Various of New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) building

Seattle, Washington State, USA - March 4, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
4. Various of pedestrians
5. Various of bar balcony; buildings; pedestrians

Kirkland, Washington State, USA - March 3, 2020 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
6. Closed restaurant
7. Empty street

Chicago, Illinois, USA - Recent (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
8. Security personnel at work
9. Various of sign board showing direction to COVID-19 testing, medical staff at test site
10. Various of police officers at work
11. Police officer directing traffic
12. Various of Illinois National Guard staff checking people's temperature

The Justice Department of the United States started investigation into cases of U.S. lawmakers dumping stocks before the stock market plunged amid coronavirus fears, U.S. media reported Monday.

Several U.S. lawmakers have been accused of taking advantage of their positions to obtain relevant information in advance and selling off their stocks before the U.S. stock market plummeted due to the novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) epidemic.

Sources said the investigation team of the U.S. Justice Department is currently working with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate the sales made by several senators before the stock market plunged, CNN reported Monday.

A source revealed that the FBI had reached out Senator Richard Burr, chairman of Senate Intelligence Committee for information on the transaction. It is unclear whether any other lawmakers are also under investigation.

According to U.S. media reports, the U.S. Senate heard a closed-door briefing by the White House officials on the risk of COVID-19 outbreak on January 24. Since then, many senators such as Burr have sold a lot of stocks before the stock market plunge occurred in late February.

The report said that Burr dumped stocks worth 628,000 to 1.72 million U.S. dollars on February 13. A few days before his transaction, Burr wrote in a joint media statement that the United States was now more capable than ever before to respond to public health threats, such as the novel coronavirus.

Since then, members of Congress including Republican Senators Kelly Loeffler, James Inhoffe, and Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein have been exposed for similar operations, selling stocks worth hundreds of thousands to millions of U.S. dollars.

Burr issued a statement on March 20, saying that his decision to sell off stocks at that time was based only on public news reports. Other senators involved also claimed that they had not committed wrongdoing.

Several U.S. senators have been accused of selling off stocks without notifying the public of the severity of the outbreak. Many media criticized that these senators involved, who have already known the severe epidemic situation, only told the public that there was no problem, while making profits from hiding the facts.