Key Takeaways:
Five Senate Democrats are demanding sworn testimony over whether a $500 million investment by UAE officials in President Donald Trump's family crypto venture influenced subsequent US policy toward the Gulf state.
Five Senate Democrats formally demanded congressional hearings into a $500 million investment by UAE-linked entities in World Liberty Financial, the Trump family's crypto venture, citing potential conflicts of interest and national security concerns in a letter dated June 23.
"The arrangement marked something unprecedented in American politics: a foreign government official taking a major ownership stake in an incoming US president's company," the senators wrote. Senators Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, Gary Peters, Dick Durbin and Ron Wyden signed the letter, which requests that multiple Senate committees hold hearings on the deal.
The transaction closed four days before President Trump's inauguration in January 2025, with UAE-linked investors acquiring a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial for $500 million. As part of the agreement, foreign buyers paid $218 million upfront to entities tied to the Trump family and Steve Witkoff, the president's lead Middle East diplomat, according to the letter. The deal was backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE's National Security Advisor.
The investigation targets a series of Trump administration decisions that benefited the UAE within months of the investment. In May 2025, the administration approved a $1.4 billion arms sale to the UAE despite congressional concerns about weapons flowing to armed groups in Sudan, where more than 150,000 people have died. The Treasury Department also created a "Known Investor Pilot" program to streamline investment approvals through the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a fast-track process the UAE had lobbied for.
Policy shifts and technology transfers
The Commerce Department rescinded Biden-era chip export restrictions, allowing the UAE to receive up to triple or quadruple the number of advanced semiconductors it previously could have imported. It authorized G42, a UAE artificial intelligence company chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, to receive 35,000 Nvidia Blackwell chips in a deal worth over $1 billion.
US intelligence officials had previously caught G42 providing American technology that was used to enhance China's missile capabilities, according to the letter. Though G42 allegedly committed to divesting its Chinese holdings, reports suggest the firm attempted to obfuscate its ties to Beijing by moving its business holdings in China to a new investment firm.
The investment also follows a separate transaction in which MGX, a UAE state-backed investment company, boosted the market capitalization of the Trump family's stablecoin by almost $2 billion overnight, the senators noted.
What comes next
The senators demanded that Trump administration officials "explain under oath what they knew and when about payments to the families of the president and his lead diplomat for the region." They also pressed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in February to determine whether the deal should be subject to a CFIUS probe.
The investigation adds to a growing list of congressional inquiries into Trump's crypto dealings. Earlier this year, Democrats pressed Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins over the decision to drop a fraud case against Justin Sun, a major World Liberty Financial backer. In May, Democratic Senator Peter Welch and Representative Dave Min launched a probe into Trump's pardons, including that of Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao, after Binance accepted a $2 billion investment from an Abu Dhabi fund.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
