Trump's crypto venture faces scrutiny from House Democrats

After weeks of hype, Donald Trump’s family is rolling out its new cryptocurrency startup. Democrats on Capitol Hill are taking notes.

The former president used a livestream on the social media site X Monday evening to help launch World Liberty Financial, a crypto company led by his sons and real estate investor Steve Witkoff. The venture is a new twist in Trump’s embrace of the crypto world, which he has promised to give a big boost if he's elected in November.

Now, House Democrats are signaling they'll take aim at his family's crypto project, which has triggered conflict-of-interest concerns as he's wrapped it into his pro-crypto policy messaging. If Democrats win back the House, they'll have subpoena power next year — an authority they used to target Trump's financial records during his first term.

“For those of us who care about preventing money laundering and protecting investors, it is imperative that we apply the highest scrutiny to this most recent Trump family grift,” said Rep. Sean Casten of Illinois, a Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee.

The comments illustrate the risks Trump is taking by embracing a business venture his sons are launching less than 50 days before the election. It’s opening up new lines of attacks for Democrats who have long sought to paint Trump as corrupt.

Trump's potential foes this time around include Reps. Maxine Waters , the top Democrat on Financial Services, and Jamie Raskin , the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.

“The basic problem is that the presidency is not a money-making venture, or it should not be, and Trump from the beginning has regarded it as an extension of his business enterprises,” Raskin said in an interview last week. “This just multiplies the conflicts of interests and the exposure to more criminal and constitutional problems.”

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said last month that ethics watchdog groups that have raised ethics concerns with the project “are led by Democrat donors and partisans who clearly suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

The former president did not address specifics of World Liberty in a Q&A during Monday's X stream, but he attacked Vice President Kamala Harris for the Biden administration’s approach to crypto and vowed again to enact industry-friendly policies.

“It’s a very hostile environment right now. The SEC has been extremely hostile, and really going after people,” he said. “I view it differently. I just view it that we have to be the top, no matter what we do.”

Waters called out the Trump crypto venture for attracting fraud during a recent hearing at the House Financial Services Committee, which she is poised to chair if Republicans lose the House. Other Democrats on the panel are eager to dig in. They say that promising pro-crypto policies as his family launches a digital asset company is unethical.

“This makes Clarence Thomas look like Mother Teresa,” said Rep. Brad Sherman , a senior Democrat on the committee.

If he wins, the crypto venture would likely become the latest financial services firm to be caught up in congressional oversight of Trump. As committee chairs in 2019, Waters and Rep. Adam Schiff subpoenaed Trump's bank records , sparking a protracted legal standoff over their authority.

Trump’s sons rolled out fresh details about the crypto startup on Monday. Witkoff said during the virtual event that he helped initiate the project about nine months ago after his son introduced him to the project’s developers — Chase Herro and Zak Folkman — and he sought a meeting with Trump, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.

“What, I think, we’re doing here is really a game-changer,” Trump Jr. said on the livestream. “This is the start, I think, of a financial revolution.”