One-time Eagles player Jack Brewer, facing insider trading charges, speaks at RNC

Despite being removed from a list of speakers, Jack Brewer, a former NFL player who spent one season with the Eagles, delivered a speech Wednesday night at the Republican National Convention.

Brewer’s omission came after NPR reported on insider trading charges that were filed against him earlier this month. He also wasn’t mentioned in a Wednesday news briefing about the convention.

During his speech, Brewer praised President Donald Trump for his attempts “to end mass incarceration” and accused former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, of “locking up countless Black men for nonviolent crimes.” He also falsely claimed the media twisted Trump’s words when he said there were “very fine people, on both sides” following a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017.

Brewer, a member of Black Voices for Trump, is facing federal charges of insider trading by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The civil charges were filed Aug. 6.

According to court documents, Brewer is alleged to have sold 100,000 shares in a penny stock after receiving inside information about a likely drop in the share price for the company, COPsync Inc. The SEC says Brewer sold his stock at prices ranging from $1.01 to $1.16, netting about $104,000. Days later, the market price of the stock had dropped to $0.69 per share.

During an interview on Minneapolis talk radio Wednesday, Brewer said he was in Washington and ready to deliver his speech. The charges didn’t come up during the interview.

“For me it’s a huge honor. I’ve tried to live a life of service, and I’m just really excited to tell a part of my story today, and hopefully it resonates with the American people,” Brewer told WWCO News Talk 830 host David Lee.

Brewer spent six seasons in the NFL. In addition to the Eagles, Brewer spent time on the rosters of the Minnesota Vikings, New York Giants, and Arizona Cardinals before retiring in 2006. Following his career, he founded Brewer Group Inc., which describes itself as a consulting firm.

He isn’t the first speaker to cause a bit of a headache for Republican organizers. Tuesday night, just minutes before the start of the second night of the convention, Republicans announced a video featuring Mary Ann Mendoza — whose son was killed in 2014 in a car accident with an immigrant who was in the country illegally — would no longer air after she promoted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories on Twitter.