https://accountable.us/trump-coins-secret-dinners-and-a-2-5-billion-congressional-conflict/
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$TRUMP Coins, Secret Dinners, and a $2.5 Billion Congressional Conflict
Trump Accountability Watch: Trump Profits Off the Presidency While Congressional Republicans Put Health Care on the Line
This week, Donald Trump and his allies in Congress are marching toward another betrayal of working families as they push forward deep cuts to health care and food assistance. It comes as House Republicans advanced the largest cuts to Medicaid and SNAP in history – which would result in 14 million Americans losing health coverage, 3 million households going without food assistance, and an increased burden for millions with higher education and energy costs. All while adding over $4 trillion to the deficit.
The devastating cuts are all to fund a tax giveaway to benefit Trump, his family, and their billionaire friends. A recent analysis from Accountable.US revealed that of the top 35 richest congressional Republicans, worth $2.5 billion collectively, 28 sit on key committees overseeing cuts, and all are able to take advantage of Trump-endorsed tax cuts aimed to benefit the wealthy. It’s the latest example laid bare in Accountable.US’s Cash in Congress project, which has made clear how Congressional Republicans are putting their own bottom line ahead of regular Americans.
As Americans see essential benefits intended to help those in need wiped away, Trump’s failed agenda is making it harder and harder for ordinary families to get ahead. Trump’s tariff rollercoaster is injecting chaos and uncertainty into the economy – hurting small businesses, tanking consumer confidence, shrinking American manufacturing, and driving up costs on everything from cars and electronics to shoes.
But none of that has mattered much to Trump, who continues to use the bully pulpit to sell presidential access to the highest bidder. In his latest potential pay-to-play scheme, this week, Trump’s SEC announced it had voluntarily dismissed its lawsuit against Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, for allegedly misleading investors about trading controls, among other accusations. The news comes after Binance was involved in a $2 billion business deal using Trump’s cryptocurrency coins – potentially generating “tens of millions of dollars a year in revenue for the Trump family and its partners at World Liberty.” While Americans struggle to get by, Trump and his family are cashing in at their expense. It comes after Trump held an openly corrupt gala for top holders of Trump’s cryptocurrency meme coin $TRUMP, in which 80% of the Top 25 winners appeared to be either foreign or regulation dodgers. Last month, Accountable.US hosted a press call sounding the alarm on the dinner, which was one of Trump’s biggest corrupt self-enrichment crypto schemes to date.
As Trump and his allies in Congress advance a massive tax scam for the wealthy, the out-of-touch records of the President’s initial judicial nominees have come to light:
- Trump handpicks his defense attorney and “hatchet man,” Emil Bove for lifetime judicial nomination: Last week, Donald Trump made one of his most extreme judicial nominations to date by nominating Emil Bove III to a lifetime appointment on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Bove is a far-right ideologue who has emerged as Trump’s “enforcer” and his “hatchet man” in the Justice Department. At DOJ, Bove has forced transfers of top nonpolitical officials opposing political interference, fired Capitol riot prosecutors, and sought after FBI agents involved in January 6th cases. Bove repeatedly made longshot arguments, often shot down by judges. Earlier this year, Bove created chaos in the Justice Department after dropping the corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Eight veteran attorneys resigned in protest, and Bove represented the government himself, alone, in a highly unusual move following the internal turmoil and chaos.
- Trump judicial nominees at the center of effort to revive case to ban mifepristone: Last week, new research from Accountable.US revealed that two of President Donald Trump’s initial judicial nominees, Joshua Divine and Maria Lanahan, are at the forefront of the push to revive a court case banning medication abortion. Last year, the Supreme Court ruled against an extreme far-right effort to strip the FDA of its science-based, decades-long approval of mifepristone. Now, Trump nominees Divine and Lanahan are pushing to resurrect the case with an amended complaint, which absurdly argues states are being harmed by fewer teen pregnancies because loss of potential population caused “diminishment of political representation” and “loss of federal funds.” The lawsuit also peddles false claims that mifepristone is unsafe for patients, despite over 100 scientific studies confirming the safety of the pills. Divine and Lanahan’s efforts have also been called out as a “nakedly political and judge-shopping ploy,” as the case was refiled out of state in Amarillo, Texas, to ensure it’s heard by a favorable judge.
ACCOUNTABLE.US IN THE NEWS:
Bloomberg: Trump’s World Liberty to Mainly Sell Digital Tokens to Investors Outside the US: “‘Congress should demand the President disclose who’s paying him tribute in the shadows to assess whether the public interest is being compromised,’ said Tony Carrk, executive director of Accountable.US, a nonprofit interest group that has set up a ‘Trump Accountability War Room; online. Accountable found that at least 14 of the top 50 holders of World Liberty Financial tokens have also used cryptocurrency services that aren’t available in the US. Bloomberg’s own analysis found an additional eight wallets that did so. World Liberty disclosed in November that its initial $300 million offering was primarily being marketed offshore.”
Rolling Stone: TRUMP FAMILY’S CRYPTO VENTURE NETS $25 MILLION INVESTMENT FROM FIRM SUSPECTED OF FRAUD: “As noted in research from Accountable.US, DWF has come under scrutiny for alleged market manipulation. In 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported that Binance had responded to a 2023 lawsuit by the SEC over alleged misuse of customer funds and illegal operations within the U.S. by beefing up its market surveillance team and hiring outside financial investigators to root out fraud. These investigators found that DWF, a ‘VIP’ client of Binance, had ‘manipulated the price of YGG and at least six other tokens, and made over $300 million in wash trades in 2023,’ violating Binance’s terms and conditions. After the team recommended removing DWF from the platform, Binance instead had the team itself investigated and concluded that there was ‘insufficient evidence’ of the alleged market manipulation, then fired the lead investigator, with others laid off over the next few months. ‘Something smells rotten about the Trump administration squashing its crypto crime unit one business day after a Russia-tied foreign investor suspected of illegal market manipulation poured millions into one of the opaque Trump family crypto ventures,’ Accountable.US executive director Tony Carrk tells Rolling Stone. “President Trump has deliberately left the barn door open for potential corruption and self-enrichment by maintaining ties to his largely unregulated crypto interests, and even jumping into more since taking office. If the President’s business is going to continue openly taking foreign money this way, including from likely criminal elements, he must be transparent about what these foreign investors are asking for in return.’”
Reuters: Dinner with the president: Trump meme coin surges on offer to top buyers: “Trump’s planned dinner with $TRUMP coin holders is ‘a race to the bottom for presidential grifting,’ said Tony Carrk, executive director of Accountable.US, a nonpartisan government ethics watchdog group. ‘There has never been a clearer case of a president using their office to put money in their pocket, or greater potential for special interests to buy an administration’s favor that could threaten the public interest,’ Carrk said.”
HuffPost: Company Boasts Spending Up To $20 Million On Trump Crypto Coin To Buy Influence: “An international trucking logistics firm is buying as much as $20 million worth of President Donald Trump’s crypto coins to influence the administration’s trade policy — the precise sort of corruption that experts warned Trump was encouraging when he unveiled his venture. […] ‘It’s just another day for Donald Trump that an international freight company is paying a $20 million tribute towards the Trump family fortune after openly wishing it will lead to administration tariff relief,’ said Tony Carrk, executive director of Accountable.US. The watchdog group discovered Freight Technologies’ plan through a social media post bragging about it by GetTrumpMemes.com, the company that sells the Trump coins. […] ‘There’s little doubt this company is expecting some administration policy relief in return for their generous investment in the growing Trump crypto empire,’ Carrk said. ‘It’s an indictment in and of itself that the president has paved the way for so much potential corruption for his own personal gain and at the public expense that few can keep up.’”
CNBC: What the House Republican budget bill means for your money: “As a result of the changes in the bill, which include stricter work requirements to qualify for the programs, 14 million individuals may lose health coverage, while 3 million households may go without food assistance, according to Accountable.US, a nonpartisan watchdog group.”
Scripps News: Trump’s private crypto dinner draws criticism over access and the president’s ties to cryptocurrency: “During a press call organized by Accountable.US, a nonpartisan watchdog group in the crypto space, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) also harshly criticized the President’s dinner. ‘What’s happening tonight at Trump’s golf course — where he is hosting a dinner for the top investors in his meme coins — is in effect, putting a ‘For Sale’ sign on the White House. It’s auctioning off access,’ said Senator Blumenthal.”
HuffPost: 2 Of Trump’s Court Picks Argued Abortion Pill ‘Starves The Baby To Death’ In Womb: “‘Donald Trump is picking up right where he left off using the courts to impose an agenda that takes away our rights and control of our lives,” Caroline Ciccone, Accountable.US president, told HuffPost. Ciccone said Divine and Lanahan have a ‘record of eliminating Americans’ freedoms’ which ‘is out of step with the vast majority of the public and calls into question their ability to rule impartially.’”
RECENT RELEASES FROM ACCOUNTABLE.US:
- Watchdog: Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ Project Stands to Benefit His Son, Donald Jr. — Not Just Elon Musk and Other Wealthy Trump Donors
- Joni Ernst on Gutting Tens of Millions of Americans’ Healthcare: “Well, we all are going to die”
- Corruption Watch: Trump’s SEC Drops Major Case Against Crypto Giant Binance After Its Former CEO Partnered With Trump Family On Lucrative Crypto Venture
- Accountable.US Statement on Trump Judicial Nominees Joshua Divine and Maria Lanahan Steamrolling Missouri Voters and Advancing a Statewide Abortion Ban
- Senate Republicans Poised to Gut Healthcare, Lower Taxes For Ultra-Rich Behind Closed Doors
- DOGE Weekly Watchdog: Musk’s DOGE Took A Chainsaw to Communities, Made Billionaires Richer. Trump Isn’t Stopping Now
- COURT WATCH: New Report from Accountable.US on The Extremist Legal Network Guiding Trump’s Court Capture Campaign
- Accountable.US Statement in Response to Trump’s Nomination of His Defense Attorney Emil Bove to Lifetime Judicial Appointment
- Watchdog: New Accountable.US Report Reveals Trump Judicial Nominees Alleged Medication Abortion “Harmed” States By Reducing Teen Pregnancies
- Richest Congressional Republicans Worth More Than $2.5 Billion Get a Tax Cut While Cutting Healthcare for Millions
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donald, The orange faced oligarch
