Senate Democratic Leaders Call for Hearings into Extent of Donald Trump, Trump Family, and Senior Trump Administration Officials' Cashing in on Foreign Crypto Deals

"We are deeply concerned about this series of events, which raise questions about what more the UAE may receive - or may have already received - at the expense of U.S. national security after investing in the Trump family crypto company."

"Congress has a responsibility to investigate the details of the reported investment and whether it influenced subsequent actions by President Trump and the Trump Administration."

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ranking Member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations; Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary; and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Finance, wrote to the Republican Chairs of their respective Committees urging immediate hearings on the Trump family's cryptocurrency firm and its ties to a foreign government that subsequently received advanced U.S. AI chips and a major arms deal.

Public reporting revealed that four days before Donald Trump's inauguration, lieutenants to an Abu Dhabi royal secretly purchased a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial (WLF) for approximately $500 million - with $218 million paid up front to entities tied to the families of President Trump and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. The arrangement, the senators note, "marked something unprecedented in American politics: a foreign government official taking a major ownership stake in an incoming U.S. president's company."

The lawmakers go on to explain that within months of the deal, the Trump Administration approved $1.4 billion in arms sales to the UAE, authorized the sale of 35,000 advanced AI chips to the UAE's G42 firm despite national security concerns, and took steps to loosen cryptocurrency regulations - including disbanding the Justice Department's National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team. The senators also note that UAE-backed MGX purchased a stake in TikTok, despite President Trump's promise it would be owned by "American investors [and] American companies."

"We are deeply concerned about this series of events, which raise questions about what more the UAE may receive - or may have already received - at the expense of U.S. national security after investing in the Trump family crypto company," wrote the lawmakers.

"Trump Administration officials must explain under oath what they knew and when about payments to the families of the President and his lead diplomat for the region," the lawmakers concluded. "They must also explain how they will restore faith that the Administration is representing the best interests of the American people rather than the personal interests of the President and his close associates."

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