Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Elissa Slotkin pressed for a probe into President Donald Trump, his family, and top administration officials over their concerns that ethics rules were broken in connection with World Liberty Financial.
In a letter sent on Wednesday to the acting inspector general of the Commerce Department, the acting director of the Office of Government Ethics, and the acting inspector general at the State Department, the lawmakers said they want more information about the roles of White House AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks and U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff with the United Arab Emirates. Witkoff's son, Zach Witkoff, is the CEO of World Liberty Financial (WLF), a crypto company backed by the Trumps and the Witkoffs. President Trump and his three sons are listed as co-founders of the company.
The letter comes after an investigation from The New York Times last week that found that the Trump administration had been involved in two deals made in quick succession involving WLF and the approval of thousands of U.S. artificial intelligence chips to the UAE, which Warren and Slotkin said was "sensitive national security technology."
NYT reported that UAE-founded investment firm MGX said it was investing $2 billion into the crypto exchange behemoth Binance using stablecoins. Then, in May, it was revealed that MGX made its investment using WLF's newly launched USD1 stablecoin.
Two weeks later, the Trump administration allowed the UAE "access to hundreds of thousands of the world's most advanced and scarce computer chips, a crucial tool in the high-stakes race to dominate artificial intelligence," according to the NYT.
A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Block. The NYT said spokespeople from WLF and the White House denied any connection between the two deals.
Meanwhile, President Trump's son Eric defended his family during an interview on CNBC last week.
"My father's the first guy who hasn't made money off of the presidency," Eric Trump said. "We've always been serial capitalists; we've always had companies. Crypto came out of a necessity that we were debanked by everybody and needed to find a new way."
Warren and Slotkin raised concerns that Witkoff and Sacks allegedly enriched themselves with the deals.
"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," they said in the letter.
Crypto bill looms
This comes as lawmakers are working on a larger crypto market structure bill, where President Trump's crypto ventures have become a point of contention. Currently, the House and Senate have separate versions of a crypto market structure bill that would need to eventually come together into one version. Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott has said he wanted to get something done on that legislation by the end of the month, but that now is likely to be pushed back in part as a government shutdown looms. Warren is the top Democrat of the Senate Banking Committee.
Warren and Slotkin demanded information about allegations around the deals, particularly as those bills work their way through Washington.
"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," they said. "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."
