Senator Elizabeth Warren is calling for congressional hearings after a new report revealed that the United Arab Emirates’ top intelligence official secretly took a nearly 50% stake in a Trump-era crypto company.
According to a Wall Street Journal investigation, an entity backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan – the UAE’s national security adviser and key power broker known as “Sheikh Spy” – quietly purchased a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial for $500 million just days before Donald Trump’s inauguration last year.
The deal, signed by Eric Trump, would have funneled $187 million directly to Trump family entities, and at least $31 million to entities linked to Trump ally Steve Witkoff, who had recently been named special envoy to the Middle East.
The Journal noted that the deal was reached months before the Trump administration approved the sale of advanced U.S. AI chips to the United Arab Emirates — technology that the Biden administration had restricted due to national security concerns related to Tahnoon’s AI company, G42.
Senator Warren, ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, released a statement following the report:
“This is corruption, pure and simple. The Trump administration must reverse its decision to sell sentient AI chips to the United Arab Emirates. Steve Witkoff, David Sacks, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and other Trump administration officials must testify before Congress about growing evidence that they sold out U.S. national security for the president’s crypto company — and whether any officials lined their pockets in the process. Congress must expand and stop Trump’s crypto corruption.”
Warren and Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) previously called for an investigation into whether Donald Trump, his family and top officials profited from foreign crypto deals tied to access to U.S. technology.
“President Trump only acts in the best interest of the American public,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly, who said his assets are in a trust managed by his children, told the WSJ. “There are no conflicts of interest.” She said Witkoff was working to “advance President Trump’s peace goals around the world.”
White House counsel David Warrington also told the WSJ that “the president is not involved in trade deals that could implicate his constitutional responsibilities.” He added that Witkoff takes compliance with government ethics rules seriously. “He has not and does not participate in any official business that could impact his financial interests,” he said, noting that Witkoff had “divest from World Liberty Financial.”
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