Blumenthal Delivers Opening Statement at Public Forum on Trump Family Corruption

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ranking Member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), delivered an opening statement today at a public forum on how Donald Trump, his children, and top Administration officials have leveraged their positions to grow their personal wealth at the expense of American families. At the forum, “Gaming the System: How the Trump Family is Making Billions by Ripping Off the American People,” Blumenthal and U.S. Representative Robert Garcia (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, called out Donald Trump and his family for their self-enrichment schemes and made the case for strong reforms to curb corruption at the federal level. Blumenthal slammed Republicans for enabling Trump’s corruption by moving to advance crypto market structure legislation without meaningful anti-corruption provisions: “Exhibit A, the latest draft of the Clarity Act relating to conflicts of interest. It purports to prevent conflicts of interest and corruption by the President of the United States. It is a charade. It is a sham. It should prompt a no vote by every member of the United States Senate tomorrow at 2:15 when the vote is scheduled.” Blumenthal continued, “Now, of all the families’ grifts, cryptocurrency has probably been the most profitable enterprise, and the cost to consumers probably have been greatest. This is an industry that was facing criminal and civil investigations for enabling terrorists, drug traffickers, market manipulation, and human trafficking. It turns out the shadiest people were more than willing to cut checks to literally get out of jail. President Trump’s willingness to trade the public trust for crypto wealth began before he was sworn in.” Blumenthal continued, “So, this corruption is going to continue unless we take a stand, unless we sound the alarm. And unless the people of the United States tell Republicans corruption is on the ballot this November. Corruption is on the ballot because—here’s the essential point—corruption is costly. Corruption has consequences. I know folks out there are saying themselves, you know, I’m paying more for gasoline and groceries. I can barely afford new clothes for my kids as they go back to school. And you’re making a fuss about Donald Trump making a lot of money. But folks, this is relevant to your lives. This is real in its cost to you.” Blumenthal underscored the costs to taxpayers and our national security as a result of the Trump family’s self-enrichment schemes: “When members of the family like Jared Kushner, who has served as the government’s top negotiator in crises from Gaza to Ukraine, goes out soliciting business for his private equity firm, Affinity Partners, and he goes to the Saudis for $2 billion, or when the country of Qatar provides a plane, or when Melania Trump makes millions of dollars from her vanity project documentary sponsored by Amazon, interests are compromised. Our national interest is compromised.” “The grifts just keep on grifting. For some people, Donald Trump is a gift that keeps on giving, but it’s almost entirely to his family and his billionaire friends. And that’s why we’re here today: to say enough is enough. The American people should know what’s happening,” Blumenthal concluded. A video of Blumenthal’s remarks at the forum is available here . A transcript is available below. Thanks, Representative Garcia, and thank you for your leadership and collaboration. We have conducted a series of hearings on some of the most important issues of the day. And I wish we were on the dais, which hopefully we will be, not long from now. But even here, I just want to tell the witnesses and everybody here there are probably more people watching us through live stream than would be aware of what we’re doing if we were conducting a formal hearing. The reason I regret that we’re not on the dais is this kind of inquiry should be bipartisan. My Republican colleagues should be as offended by what Representative Garcia has just recited as we are. And they should want to hear from these witnesses—really extraordinary experts—as much as we do. But instead, instead, they are not only enabling, but they are encouraging this corruption. Exhibit A, the latest draft of the Clarity Act relating to conflicts of interest. It purports to prevent conflicts of interest and corruption by the President of the United States. It is a charade. It is a sham. It should prompt a no vote by every member of the United States senate tomorrow at 2:15 when the vote is scheduled. This measure guarantees that the law will never be enforced against President Donald Trump. It would allow him to continue making hundreds of millions of dollars through World Liberty Financial and his meme coin and other crypto ventures. In fact, the bill does not restrict the primary ways that Trump has raked in $1.4 billion last year. And it states loophole number one: Trump can continue making money from existing crypto ventures. The bill states that its issuance and sponsorship restrictions shall only apply to digital assets that are used or sponsored on or after the effective date of the section. Number two: Trump could easily restructure any crypto ventures or create new ones to avoid these restrictions. Number three: he can prove it by putting his crypto holdings in a supposedly blind trust. We know how blind that trust would really be. Because he knows what assets are being held there. So, this corruption is going to continue unless we take a stand, unless we sound the alarm. And unless the people of the United States tell Republicans corruption is on the ballot this November. Corruption is on the ballot because—here’s the essential point—corruption is costly. Corruption has consequences. I know folks out there are saying themselves, you know, I’m paying more for gasoline and groceries. I can barely afford new clothes for my kids as they go back to school. And you’re making a fuss about Donald Trump making a lot of money. But folks, this is relevant to your lives. This is real in its cost to you. And it’s not just crypto. It is also the contracts that are provided to the corporations that his sons have investment in. Donald and Eric, those sole-source contracts, when they are higher in price, mean higher taxes eventually, because these are big contracts, they’re Defense Department commitments in the hundreds of millions or billions of dollars. Polymarket and Kalshi—the whole prediction market enterprise—when people, in effect bet, and the bets are unfair to them, they lose money. That may sound like an oversimplification, but the fact of the matter is there are real life consequences to corruption. And of course, when members of the family like Jared Kushner, who has served as the government’s top negotiator in crises from Gaza to Ukraine, goes out soliciting business for his private equity firm, Affinity Partners, and he goes to the Saudis for $2 billion or when the country of Qatar provides a plane, or when Melania Trump makes millions of dollars from her vanity project documentary sponsored by Amazon, interests are compromised. Our national interest is compromised. Now, of all the families’ grifts, cryptocurrency has probably been the most profitable enterprise, and the cost to consumers probably have been greatest. This is an industry that was facing criminal and civil investigations and for enabling terrorists, drug traffickers, market manipulation and human trafficking. It turns out the shadiest people were more than willing to cut checks to literally get out of jail. President Trump’s willingness to trade the public trust for crypto wealth began before he was sworn in. Days before the inauguration, he launched and promoted a meme coin with nothing more than speculative value. It was a pump and dump. The coin started at $1. But when Trump promoted it on Truth Social, it spiked to $73, as you can see here, shortly afterward, insiders sold off their coins. The value crashed. Within weeks, approximately $1 million lost a total of $3.8 billion on their coin investment. As of today, the coin is trading under $2. So, corruption has costs, it has consequences. And at one of our hearings very recently, we heard from three of those investors and they told us how they trusted that the President wouldn’t put his name on something that was without value, and they lost nearly everything, President Trump personally made $635 million, as you know, the same kind of story can be told about World Liberty Financial, where Donald Trump’s sons were hastily building up that entity, the primary cryptocurrency venture for the trump family. It has become literally little more than a quid pro quo for foreign interests. Its major source of funding, an Emirati royal, known as the spy sheikh paid half $1 billion for a 49% stake in the company, and miraculously, they then were rewarded with contracts for AI chips, which had been blocked, and defense equipment, most recently, as Representative Garcia mentioned. In fact, just this morning, ProPublica reported that Don Jr.’s lavish wedding on a private Caribbean island was heavily bankrolled by—never would have guessed it, a Russian oligarch named Umar Kremlev. He happened to have close ties to Vladimir Putin. He’s head of a corrupt organization that oversees world boxing. We have no idea exactly why this Russian oligarch with close ties to Putin decided to spend untold amounts, perhaps in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, to rent an island and pay for a fireworks show at the wedding—but what goes around comes around. There’s no free lunch, and I’m often asked the question, what does Putin have on Trump? Why has Vladimir Putin been so persuasive in this apparent bromance with the president of the United States? And if there are other deals like this one, and the wedding may just be the more colorful of them, the answer may be follow the money, because Donald Trump is all about the money, and the costs are not only money to taxpayers, they are a compromise and a degrading of our values, our standing around the world, our self-worth, and our dignity as a nation, and the grifts just keep on grifting. For some people, Donald Trump is a gift that keeps on giving, but it’s almost entirely to his family and his billionaire friends. And that’s why we’re here today: to say enough is enough. The American people should know what’s happening. -30-