Former GOP Rep. Chris Collins set to be sentenced in insider trading case

Disgraced former Rep. Chris Collins is set to be sentenced Friday in the insider-trading case that led him to give up his seat in Congress.

U.S. Judge Vernon Broderick is scheduled to deliver Collins’ sentence at 2:30 p.m. ET in federal court in lower Manhattan.

Federal prosecutors want Broderick to sentence Collins to nearly five years in prison — the top end of the federal guidelines range — to make an example of Collins that will “promote respect for the law, in light of the lack of respect that Collins has shown for it.”

But Collins’ lawyers have asked the judge to deliver a sentence of probation to the fallen congressman.

“He has paid a heavy price for his crimes,” one of his attorneys wrote in a court filing last week, claiming Collins is “now too ashamed to spend significant time in the community he loves.”

Probation officers had recommended a sentence of a year and a day in prison, along with a $200,000 fine and a term of supervised release.

Collins, 69, was the first member of Congress to support then-candidate Donald Trump’s 2016 White House bid. And despite pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and making false statements, Collins has retained some support in his upstate New York district — and from high-profile Republicans like former House Speaker John Boehner — who have vouched for Collins’ character in letters to the judge.

Collins in October pleaded guilty to tipping off his son Cameron in a phone call from the White House lawn about the results of an Australian biotech company’s failed drug trial before the test results became public.

After the test was revealed, the stock price of the firm — in which Collins was a leading investor and board member — tanked by more than 90%.

A day before Collins switched his plea to guilty, he submitted his resignation from Congress.

Cameron Collins saved nearly $600,000 by dumping his stock in the company, Innate Immunotherapeutics, before it disclosed the bad news in a press release. Chris Collins himself did not trade Innate stock after learning about the test results.

The younger Collins is due to be sentenced Jan. 23, and Stephen Zarsky, the father of Cameron’s fiancee, will be sentenced Jan. 24 in connection with his selling Innate stock after being tipped by Cameron to the bad test results.

On Wednesday, Broderick sent both parties in the case a 26-question questionnaire, which the judge may use to help make his sentencing decision.

One of those questions asks: “In connection with his campaign for reelection did Collins make any statements professing his innocence in advertisements, press conferences or elsewhere?”