One day after resigning his Buffalo-area congressional seat, Republican Rep. Chris Collins pleaded guilty to insider trading at federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday.

Showing little emotion and reading from a prepared statement, Collins told the court he was "embarrassed and dismayed," adding that he doesn't think "regret is even the proper word."

"By virtue of his position, Collins helped write the laws of this country, yet acted as if the law didn't apply to him," Geoff Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a news conference outside the courthouse.

Collins pleaded guilty to two counts of a federal indictment: conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and lying to investigators when FBI agents raided his home in April 2018. Collins was indicted months later.

The former congressman owned stock in an Australian biotech company. He received word from the company's CEO in 2017 that a clinical trial had come back with disappointing results. Collins was on the White House lawn for a congressional picnic at the time he received that call. While he didn't dump his own stock, he called his son, who did. Collins's son is also expected to plead guilty.

"No one is above the law," Berman said. "It is because of our office's commitment to, and in pursuit of that ideal, that Collins is now a convicted felon and no longer a member of Congress."

Collins declined to speak with reporters upon exiting the courthouse. He rushed into a black SUV before speeding off.

Collins had been scheduled to go on trial in February. Instead, he will be sentenced January 17. He faces up to five years in prison for each of the two counts he pleaded guilty to.

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