U.S. Rep. Christopher Collins, center, leaves federal court in Foley Square after his arrest and arraignment on insider trading charges and charges of lying to federal agents. With him is his lawyer, Jonathan Barr of Baker & Hostetler, right.

Rep. Chris Collins, who was indicted on insider trading charges this week, announced Saturday that he is suspending his campaign for Congress.

His announcement leaves his upstate New York seat open for a new conservative candidate in November to take on Grand Island Supervisor Nate McMurray, a Democrat. Collins said his decision was based partly on his family and partly for the sake of the Republican Party.

“[Democrats] would like nothing more than to elect an 'Impeach Trump' Democrat in this district, which is something that neither our country nor my party can afford,” Collins said,

“After extensive discussions with my family and my friends over the last few days, I have decided that it is in the best interests of the constituents of NY-27, the Republican Party, and President Trump's agenda for me to suspend my campaign for re-election to Congress,” he said.

Collins said he will serve out the rest of his term, which ends at the beginning of next year.

The Western New York Republican said earlier this week after his indictment that he would still seek re-election to the heavily conservative district. It's unclear how, or if, his vacancy on the ballot will be filled. The deadline to decline a congressional nomination has passed. It's likely that his replacement will be chosen by local party leaders.

Collins was charged with insider trading this week by U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman of the Southern District of New York. The charge stemmed from an Australian biotech company, Innate Immunotherapeutics, where Collins served on the board of directors, according to prosecutors.

They claim Collins tipped off his son and a family member to the failure of a clinical trial from Innate, which led them to sell their stock in the company. Prosecutors said that helped them avoid $768,000 in losses that they would have incurred otherwise.

Collins plead not guilty to the charges in federal court this week, and said later that he was confident he would be exonerated. Collins had already been under investigation by congressional investigators for his role with Innate, though it's unclear if that investigation helped tip off federal investigators to this week's charges.

Baker & Hostetler partners Jonathan Barr and Jonathan New are representing Collins. They said in a statement this week they would mount a vigorous defense of the charges.

“It is notable that even the government does not allege that Congressman Collins traded a single share of Innate Therapeutics stock,” the pair said. “We are confident he will be completely vindicated and exonerated.”

Collins, his son, Cameron, and the family member also face civil charges brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The SEC enforcement division announced that Collins' son's then-girlfriend, Lauren Zarsky, and her mother, Dorothy Zarsky, agreed to settlements with the SEC. On top of agreeing to the disgorgement of the ill-gotten gains they allegedly received from selling their stocks, Lauren Zarsky, a CPA, has agreed to a five-year suspension. According to SEC enforcement division co-director Steven Peikin, SEC market abuse investigators became aware of Cameron Collins' “suspicious trading,” leading them to other trades that were “well-timed” by people close to him. Berman declined to state whether the SEC's investigation led to a criminal referral.

Collins garnered national attention in 2016 when he became the first sitting member of Congress to endorse Donald Trump for presidential. Since then, he's been a fervent supporter of Trump. who has yet to publicly react to the news.