Senator Elizabeth Warren is calling for congressional hearings after new reporting revealed that the United Arab Emirates’ top intelligence service secretly took a nearly 50% stake in a Trump-era crypto firm.
According to a Wall Street Journal investigation, an entity backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan — the United Arab Emirates’ national security adviser and a key power broker known as the “Spy Sheikh” — quietly bought a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial for $500 million just days before Donald Trump’s inauguration last year.
The deal, signed by Eric Trump, reportedly funneled $187 million directly to Trump family entities and at least $31 million to entities linked to Trump ally Steve Witkoff, who had recently been named Middle East envoy.
The Journal noted that the deal came months before the Trump administration approved the sale of advanced US AI chips to the UAE — technology that the Biden administration had restricted because of national security concerns linked to Tahnoon’s AI company, G42.
Senator Warren, ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, issued a statement following the report:
“This is corruption, plain and simple. The Trump administration must reverse its decision to sell sensitive AI chips to the United Arab Emirates. Steve Witkoff, David Sacks, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and other Trump administration officials must testify before Congress about mounting evidence that they sold out of US national security to benefit any of the president’s official crypto businesses in a congressional process, and whether their own official crypto business grows into a congressional process. The spine and put an end to Trump’s crypto-corruption.”
Warren and Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) has previously called for an investigation into whether Donald Trump, his family and senior officials benefit from foreign crypto deals tied to US technology access.
“President Trump is acting only in the best interest of the American public,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told the WSJ, who said his assets are in a trust managed by his children. “There are no conflicts of interest.” She said Witkoff is working to “advance President Trump’s goals of peace around the world.”
White House counsel David Warrington also told the WSJ that “The president is not involved in business deals that would implicate his constitutional responsibilities.” He added that Witkoff takes his compliance with government ethics rules seriously. “He has not and does not participate in any official proceedings that may affect his financial interests,” he said, noting that Witkoff has “sold out of World Liberty Financial.”
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