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Multiple members of Congress and spouses made sales that saved them from losses before markets slid

Weeks before the new coronavirus pandemic sent the stock market plummeting, several members of Congress, their spouses and investment advisers each sold hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock after lawmakers attended sensitive, closed-door briefings about the threat of the disease.

Some of the well-timed sales spared the senators and their spouses as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential losses, a Wall Street Journal analysis of the trades shows.

Sen. Richard Burr, a top Republican from North Carolina who sits on two committees that received detailed briefings on the growing epidemic, reported in disclosure reports that he and his wife on Feb. 13 sold shares of companies worth as much as $1.7 million.

The Journal analysis shows that the shares sold by the Burrs were worth—at minimum—$250,000 less at the close of trading on March 19 than they were when the senator and his wife sold them.

Mr. Burr quickly drew criticism after his stock sales were reported Thursday evening by ProPublica and the Center for Responsive Politics. Fox News host Tucker Carlson called for Mr. Burr to resign, as did a handful of Democratic House members and the North Carolina Democratic Party.

Mr. Burr said in a statement that he relied upon “public news reports to guide my decisions regarding the sale of stocks.”

On Friday morning, Mr. Burr said he “understands the assumption that many could make in hindsight” and asked the Senate Ethics Committee chairman “to open a complete review of the matter with full transparency.”

While some market analysts were warning at the time of the potential damage the emerging coronavirus could cause to the stock market, the sales also came at a time when President Trump and some Republican politicians were playing down the potential harm from the epidemic.

Other senators who were actively trading before the spreading infectious disease caused the markets to fall were Republican Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue of Georgia, and James Inhofe of Oklahoma. The husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat, also sold stock before the market downturn.

Ms. Loeffler and Ms. Feinstein, who are both married to investment professionals, said they had been unaware of the trades because they are handled by advisers. Mr. Perdue said his portfolio is managed by an investment adviser who regularly makes dozens of trades and was buying as well as selling shares of companies at the time. Mr. Inhofe in a statement said he also has an investment adviser and doesn’t manage trades.

Mr. Burr, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which has been receiving frequent briefings on the spread of Covid-19 since it emerged in China, made 33 stock trades on Feb. 13 worth between $628,000 and $1.7 million, according to the filings. Congressional rules require that trades be reported in ranges, not precise figures.

Mr. Burr, who is regarded as the Senate’s leading authority on pandemics as the author of the 2006 Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act, is also on the Senate health committee, which was briefed on the coronavirus on Jan. 24.

Three of Mr. Burr’s sales were in hotel company stocks—Park Hotels and Resorts Inc., Wyndham Hotels & Resorts Inc. and Extended Stay America Inc. —which have seen their value drop 74%, 63% and 50%, respectively, since Mr. Burr made the sales.

Mr. Burr and his wife also sold between $96,000 and $265,000 in stock between Jan. 31 and Feb. 4, the filings show, including additional shares of Extended Stay.

In an opinion piece published on Fox News online, Mr. Burr said, “Thankfully, the United States today is better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats, like the coronavirus.”

Behind closed doors, in a meeting with a small group of constituents in Washington, Mr. Burr warned them to prepare for dire economic effects of the coronavirus, according to a recording obtained by NPR. On Twitter, Mr. Burr called that report a “tabloid-style hit piece.”

On Friday, Mr. Burr explained his trades were motivated by news reports. “Specifically, I closely followed CNBC’s daily health and science reporting out of its Asia bureaus at the time,” he said.

Sales were also reported by two other members of the Intelligence Committee, Mr. Inhofe and Ms. Feinstein.

Between Jan. 27 and Feb. 20, Mr. Inhofe sold between $230,000 and $500,000 of stock in several companies, including Brookfield Asset Management, a real-estate company. Mr. Inhofe in a statement said that his investment adviser has been moving him out of stocks and into mutual funds after he took the chairmanship of the Senate Armed Services Committee in December 2018 “to avoid any appearance of controversy.

Richard Blum, the husband of Ms. Feinstein and a professional investment manager, sold shares of Allogene Therapeutics Inc., a biotech company, on Jan. 31 and Feb. 18 in amounts between $1.5 million and $6 million.

Ms. Feinstein’s spokesman said the senator wasn’t involved in the sales. “All of Senator Feinstein’s assets are in a blind trust, as they have been since she came to the Senate. She has no involvement in any of her husband’s financial decisions,” her spokesman, Tom Mentzer, said in an email.

Matthew Sanderson, a political ethics attorney for Caplin & Drysdale, said he advises his congressional clients either to invest in mutual funds and 401(k)s, or turn investments over to an adviser with a regime to separate the lawmaker for the decision-making.

Mr. Burr’s statement that he acted based upon what he heard from the news media, and not what he learned as a committee chairman, could land him in hot water, Mr. Sanderson said. “That’s pretty weak tea, as for defenses,” Mr. Sanderson said. “That really doesn’t pass muster.”

In 2012, President Obama signed the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act to outlaw members of Congress and other government staff from engaging in insider trading based on information learned through their jobs.

The public interest group Common Cause filed complaints asking the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate the trades of Sens. Burr, Feinstein, Loeffler and Inhofe for possible violations of the law. A Common Cause spokesman said Mr. Perdue’s trades seemed different than those of other senators because they included purchases, as well as sales; still, Common Cause lawyers are considering adding Mr. Perdue to the complaints.

Ms. Loeffler also sits on the Senate’s health committee, which had a closed-door briefing on Jan. 24 about the virus with presentations from the leading U.S. public-health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious-diseases specialist in government. That day, Ms. Loeffler reported, she and her husband began making more than two dozen transactions, primarily selling millions of dollars in companies, including retailers AutoZone Inc. and Ross Stores Inc. They sold between $1.28 million and $3.1 million in stock.

By selling stock when they did, Ms. Loeffler and her husband avoided at least $480,000 in losses as of market close on March 19. The couple also purchased two stocks in February, one of which rose in value despite the market crash. Citrix Systems Inc., which makes remote computing software, rose nearly 3% value since the couple bought shares on Feb. 14.

Meanwhile, Mr. Inhofe and Mr. Perdue traded smaller amounts and avoided at least $63,000 in losses and $43,000 in losses, respectively, since late January. The stocks Mr. Perdue purchased fell similarly in value.

Ms. Loeffler said neither she nor her husband make her own day-to-day decisions on purchases and sales. She said didn’t learn about these transactions until three weeks after they were made. “This is a ridiculous & baseless attack,” Ms. Loeffler said on Twitter.

Ms. Loeffler’s husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, is the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange.

Ms. Loeffler was appointed to her seat in December after Sen. Johnny Isakson resigned for health reasons and is locked in a fierce intraparty battle for a Senate seat in Georgia. Her primary rival, Rep. Doug Collins, criticized the senator. “It’s a sad situation,” Mr. Collins said.

The stock sales of Ms. Loeffler and Mr. Sprecher were reported earlier by the Daily Beast.