Warren, Slotkin Call for Investigation into Extent of Donald Trump, Trump Family, and Senior Trump Administration Officials Cashing in on Foreign Crypto Deals
Administration Relaxed Restrictions on Sales of Sensitive National Security Technology to United Arab Emirates
As Congress considers digital asset legislation, the Senators warned that USD1 is already entangled with senior officials’ personal business dealings
“In the history of our country’s foreign policy, one is hard-pressed to find two senior officials with such significant conflicts of interest involved in decisions regarding national security.”
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) sent a letter to Duane Townsend, Acting Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Commerce, Arne Baker, Acting Inspector General at the U.S. Department of State, and Eric Ueland, Acting Director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, calling for investigations into the conflicts of interest of David Sacks, President Trump’s White House AI and Crypto Czar, and Steve Witkoff, United States Special Envoy to the Middle East.
The Senators are seeking more information regarding the roles Sacks and Witkoff may have played in advocating for the United States to sell sensitive national security technology to the United Arab Emirates and the extent to which they stood to gain financially from those deals. The request follows a New York Times investigation exposing connections between the Trump family’s cryptocurrency firm and an agreement giving the Emiratis access to advanced A.I. chips
“According to reports, Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Sacks both played key roles in the White House’s decision to relax national security restrictions on the shipment of advanced AI systems to the UAE,” wrote the Senators. “They have both publicly defended the deal. However, neither of them have disclosed their financial ties to the UAE’s national security advisor, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and the personal benefits they have received from the Sheikh’s $2 billion investment in the President’s stablecoin, USD1.”
As Congress considers digital asset legislation, the Senators warned that USD1 is already entangled with senior officials’ personal business dealings. Witkoff retains a financial interest in World Liberty Financial—the Trump family crypto firm—while his son brokered the $2 billion UAE-backed deal tied to USD1. At the same time, Sacks continues to manage a venture fund backed by Emirati money that also invests in the infrastructure behind USD1. These overlapping ties mean both men stand to profit from government decisions they helped shape.
“The pattern of these transactions is deeply troubling and reveals that Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Sacks were in positions to control government decisions to personally enrich themselves—even as they created significant national security concerns,” wrote the Senators.
They concluded: “In the history of our country’s foreign policy, one is hard-pressed to find two senior officials with such significant conflicts of interest involved in decisions regarding national security. Such unbridled conflicts of interest have no place in the U.S. government, and we urge you to undertake a swift and thorough evaluation of these allegations. This information is also critical as Congress considers legislation for digital asset market structure and attempts to ensure that crypto corruption does not undermine our national security.”
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