Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) skewered the Trump family’s crypto firm, World Liberty Financial, on Friday—for what he called its “seriously inadequate” response to a Senate inquiry into the company’s business practices.
“This seriously inadequate response conveniently avoids the fact that foreign governments and others can enrich and compromise the President through World Liberty Financial,” Blumenthal said Friday in a statement shared with Decrypt, referencing a letter sent to him by the company earlier this week.
“WLFI’s refusal to answer even the most basic questions about President Trump’s financial entanglements with the company raises serious concerns,” the senator continued. “And I will continue demanding transparency for the American people.”
World Liberty Financial, led by Chase Herro, Zak Folkman, the Trump family, and the Witkoff family—who are close with the Trumps—is a so-called DeFi project, the sort that allows for the trading, lending, and borrowing of crypto assets without third-party intermediaries such as banks. The project, launched in September during the leadup to the U.S. presidential election, raised $550 million in a token sale and issued its own stablecoin in March.
Earlier this month, Blumenthal, the ranking member on the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent a letter to World Liberty’s leadership informing the decentralized finance company that it is now being investigated over potential violations of government ethics requirements and other laws, including the foreign emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution. The clause prohibits federal officials from accepting salaries, fees, or profits from foreign governments without the consent of Congress.
The inquiry opened days after World Liberty, which is partially owned by President Trump and his sons, announced a $2 billion deal backed by the UAE government and facilitated by World Liberty’s new stablecoin, USD1. Days prior, the firm announced it had agreed to advise the Pakistani government on crypto-related matters.
Blumenthal said such business dealings pose “unprecedented conflicts of interest and national security risks,” and asked the company to submit key information to the Senate’s Investigations Subcommittee—including details regarding President Trump’s involvement in the firm’s operations.
On Thursday, World Liberty’s attorneys replied to Blumenthal’s inquiry, which they dismissed as containing “inaccuracies and fundamentally flawed inferences.”
“The Company has exercised rigorous diligence to ensure compliance with applicable legal and regulatory obligations at every stage,” World Liberty’s attorney, Teresa Goody Guillén, wrote.
While the letter emphasized the importance of World Liberty’s self-stated mission of “democratizing access to the financial system,” it did not address President Trump’s ownership stake in the company or potential conflicts of interest posed by the company’s dealings with foreign governments. It also did not provide any of the information Blumenthal had requested about World Liberty’s operations.
Inquiries into the Trump family’s crypto dealings are now sprouting across Capitol Hill, as Democrats seize on the narrative. On Wednesday, House Democrats sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, demanding access to any suspicious activity reports (SARs) his department may have filed in recent months regarding the president’s now numerous crypto endeavors.
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