Trump Must Divest from Crypto Before Crypto Legislation Passes
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Bart Naylor, a financial policy advocate with Public Citizen, testified at a House Financial Services Committee hearing entitled “American Innovation and the Future of Digital Assets: From Blueprint to a Functional Framework.”
In his testimony, Naylor provided evidence of the flagrant corruption inherent in President Trump’s crypto dealings and argued that the legislation currently being considered to regulate digital assets not only fails to properly regulate the sector, but further enables Trump’s corruption and crypto corruption more generally.
“President Donald Trump, in his self-described role as a private citizen, promotes not one, not two, but multiple for-profit crypto projects. He personally already profited hundreds of millions of dollars. Legislation legitimizing crypto will surely fatten those profits. Before Congress approves any legislation in this sector, responsible lawmakers must force Trump to divest from all such crypto ventures,” said Naylor in his testimony. “We ask the committee to direct the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to declare that one of Trump’s crypto projects, namely what he calls his “meme,” qualifies as a solicitation of a gift. While Trump controls other federal ethics and law enforcement authorities, he does not control the GAO. Without such a determination, any lawmaker could offer a “meme” as a vehicle for legalized bribery.
Naylor’s full testimony is available in full here. Contact eleach@citizen.org with additional questions or to schedule an interview.