By Sam Kessler
Top-ranking Senate Democrats are calling for hearings into a secret $500 million investment into the Trump family's cryptocurrency venture from a group led by a senior Emirati royal. The deal was first reported by The Wall Street Journal earlier this year.
In a letter addressed to their Republican committee chairs on Tuesday, the Democratic senators argued hearings on the deal would compel White House officials to "explain under oath what they knew and when about payments to the families of the president and his lead diplomat for the region."
The deal sold 49% of World Liberty Financial -- a crypto venture co-founded by members of the Trump family and U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff -- to a group led by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al Nahyan, brother to the United Arab Emirates' president and head of the country's spy agencies, according to documents reviewed by the Journal. Signed by Eric Trump just four days before the inauguration, the agreement steered at least $187 million to Trump family entities and $31 million to entities linked to Witkoff's family, the documents showed.
Four months later, the Trump administration announced a framework deal granting the U.A.E. access to highly coveted AI chips. The Gulf nation had largely been blocked from receiving the chips by the Biden administration over concerns around its relationship with China.
The investment raises "questions about what more the U.A.E. may receive -- or may have already received -- at the expense of U.S. national security," the senators wrote.
"The president has no involvement in business deals that would implicate his constitutional responsibilities," White House counsel David Warrington said. Witkoff, he added, "has not and does not participate in any official matters that could impact his financial interests," and chose to divest from World Liberty Financial.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said President Trump's businesses are held in a trust managed by his children, and the AI chips deal with the U.A.E. had "everything to do with what is best for the United States and nothing to do with World Liberty Financial."
"Early capital invested in the business of World Liberty helped the company achieve its extraordinary growth," World Liberty Financial spokesman David Wachsman said. "World Liberty is a private American enterprise and no one at the company works for the U.S. government."
Tuesday's letter was signed by Sens. Richard Blumenthal, Elizabeth Warren, Gary Peters, Dick Durbin and Ron Wyden -- ranking Democrats on the Investigations, Banking, Homeland Security, Judiciary and Finance committees. Any hearings will require Republican support. GOP lawmakers haven't publicly criticized the deal.
A spokeswoman for Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday's letter "smacks of hypocrisy," asking where the "outrage from Democrats" was in response to corruption allegations under the Biden administration.
In a report also published Tuesday, Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee listed a series of policy actions they said benefited the U.A.E. investors following the World Liberty deal, including the approval in January of a 15% sale of TikTok's U.S. operations to MGX, a company led by Tahnoon. The report also noted the October pardon of Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance, a cryptocurrency firm part-owned by MGX.
Binance has an administrative presence in the U.A.E. and holds Abu Dhabi regulatory licenses, but a spokesman said Binance is "a global, remote first business with people and operations all over the world."
Tahnoon and MGX didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
The events "raise the possibility of an unprecedented 'pay to play' scheme that is enriching the families of the President and his senior lieutenants -- all while selling out the interests of Americans," the report states.
The move adds to a growing chorus of scrutiny from Democrats. In February, California Rep. Ro Khanna announced an investigation into the sale, while Democratic members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said the investment was evidence of "corruption and self-dealing."
Administration officials have deflected questions about the deal. During an April Senate hearing, Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent if he disputed that Sheikh Tahnoon invested $500 million in WLF just before the inauguration.
"I'm not aware of that," Bessent said.
Write to Sam Kessler at sam.kessler@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 23, 2026 13:37 ET (17:37 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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