U.S. senators are in close negotiations over the language needed to create regulated crypto markets, and while they debate the details, Sen. Elizabeth Warren is looking to continue shedding light on President Donald Trump’s personal crypto ties.
The Massachusetts lawmaker, who is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee and a frequent ally, Sen. Jack Reed, sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Attorney General Pam Bondi seeking information on reports that Trump-linked World Liberty Financial Inc. sold tokens to “North Korea, Russia and other illicit actors.”
Such sales, highlighted by Accountable.us, a nonprofit group investigating Washington’s influence, “raise serious questions about WLF’s due diligence policies or procedures, including whether its tokens or other products enable sanctions evasion, money laundering, and terrorism financing,” the senators wrote.
Warren and other Democrats in the Senate and House of Representatives have targeted the president’s business dealings with WLFI, saying they pose a significant conflict of interest as his administration pursues crypto-friendly policies that will directly benefit Trump’s financial interests.
Read more: Crypto Critic Elizabeth Warren Investigates Trump’s Meme Coin Business
Prolonged resistance from a ranking member of one of the two committees expected to pass crypto legislation could ordinarily doom a legislative effort. However, Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee have demonstrated division over crypto efforts, with Warren maintaining her position that the industry is too risky and the chair dangerously conflicted while other members continue to negotiate legislative language.
Supporters of the Market Structure bill still hope it will see an increase in that panel before the end of the year, although it is unclear whether the other panel – the Senate Agriculture Committee – will be able to follow suit with its bill, which still has significant flaws. Crypto lobbyists have said in recent days that the closed-door discussions between senators were unusually secretive, giving them hope that serious language negotiations could take place.
While many Democrats have regularly demanded that the president and other high-ranking government officials be explicitly prohibited from having business ties to crypto operations, Republican lawmakers have never conceded this point in their bills.
Read more: State of Crypto: What’s in the New Draft Crypto Market Structure?
