00:00Representative Garcia, and thank you for your leadership and collaboration.
00:06We have conducted a series of hearings on some of the most important issues of the day,
00:11and I wish we were on the dais, which hopefully we will be not long from now.
00:21But even here, I just want to tell the witnesses and everybody here,
00:26there are probably more people watching us through livestream
00:29than would be aware of what we're doing if we were conducting a formal hearing.
00:34The reason I regret that we're not on the dais is this kind of inquiry should be bipartisan.
00:39My Republican colleagues should be as offended by what Representative Garcia has just recited as we are,
00:49and they should want to hear from these witnesses, really extraordinary experts, as much as we do.
00:57But instead, they are not only enabling, but they are encouraging this corruption.
01:08Exhibit A, the latest draft of the Clarity Act relating to conflicts of interest.
01:17It purports to prevent conflicts of interest and corruption by the President of the United States.
01:27It is a charade. It is a sham.
01:31It should prompt a no vote by every member of the United States Senate tomorrow at 2.15 when the
01:38vote is scheduled.
01:39This measure guarantees that the law will never be enforced against President Donald Trump.
01:49It would allow him to continue making hundreds of millions of dollars through World Liberty Financial
01:55and his meme coin and other crypto ventures.
02:01In fact, the bill does not restrict the primary ways that Trump has raked in $1.4 billion last year.
02:12And it states, loophole number one, Trump can continue making money from existing crypto ventures.
02:19The bill states that its issuance and sponsorship restrictions shall only apply to digital assets
02:25that are used or sponsored on or after the effective date of the section.
02:30Number two, Trump could easily restructure any crypto ventures or create new ones to avoid these restrictions.
02:39Number three, he can profit by putting his crypto holdings in a supposedly blind trust.
02:46We know how blind that trust would really be because he knows what assets are being held there.
02:56So this corruption is going to continue unless we take a stand, unless we sound the alarm,
03:05and unless the people of the United States tell Republicans corruption is on the ballot this November.
03:14Corruption is on the ballot because, here's the essential point, corruption is costly.
03:22Corruption has consequences.
03:24I know folks out there are saying to themselves, you know, I'm paying more for gasoline and groceries.
03:31I can barely afford new clothes for my kids as they go back to school.
03:37And you're making a fuss about Donald Trump making a lot of money.
03:42But folks, this is relevant to your lives.
03:46This is real in its cost to you.
03:52And it's not just crypto.
03:54It is also the contracts that are provided to the corporations that Suns have investment in, Donald and Eric.
04:09Those sole source contracts, when they are higher in price, mean higher taxes eventually.
04:18Because these are big contracts.
04:20They're defense department commitments in the hundreds of millions or billions of dollars.
04:28Poly market and Calci, the whole prediction market enterprise.
04:38When people, in effect, bet, and the bets are unfair to them, they lose money.
04:47That may sound like an oversimplification, but the fact of the matter is there are real-life consequences to corruption.
04:55And, of course, when members of the family, like Jared Kushner, who has served as the government's top negotiator in
05:10crises from Gaza to Ukraine,
05:13goes out soliciting business for his private equity firm, Affinity Partners,
05:18and he goes to the Saudis for $2 billion, or when the country of Qatar provides a plane,
05:32or when Melania Trump makes millions of dollars from her Vanity Project documentary sponsored by Amazon,
05:43interests are compromised.
05:45Our national interest is compromised.
05:49Now, of all the families' grifts, cryptocurrency has probably been the most profitable enterprise,
05:57and the costs to consumers probably have been greatest.
06:02This is an industry that was facing criminal and civil investigations for enabling terrorists, drug traffickers,
06:10market manipulation, and human trafficking.
06:12It turns out the shadiest people were more than willing to cut checks to literally get out of jail.
06:22President Trump's willingness to trade the public trust for crypto wealth began before he was sworn in.
06:30Days before the inauguration, he launched and promoted a meme coin with nothing more than speculative value.
06:38It was a pump and dump.
06:40The coin started at $1, but when Trump promoted it on Truth Social, it spiked to $73, as you can
06:52see here.
06:54Shortly afterward, insiders sold off their coins.
06:58The value crashed.
07:02Within weeks, approximately $1 million lost a total of $3.8 billion on their coin investment.
07:10As of today, the coin is trading under $2.
07:15So, corruption has costs.
07:18It has consequences.
07:21And at one of our hearings very recently, we heard from three of those investors,
07:26and they told us how they trusted that the president wouldn't put his name on something that was without value,
07:34and they lost nearly everything.
07:37And, again, President Trump personally made $635 million, as you know.
07:44The same kind of story can be told about World Liberty Financial,
07:52where Donald Trump's sons were hastily building up that entity,
07:56the primary cryptocurrency venture for the Trump family.
08:01It has become literally little more than a quid pro quo for foreign interests.
08:07It's major source of funding, an Emirati royal known as the spy sheet,
08:13paid half a billion dollars for a 49% stake in the company.
08:18And, miraculously, they then were rewarded with contracts for AI chips,
08:26which had been blocked, and defense equipment.
08:32Most recently, as Representative Garcia mentioned, in fact, just this morning,
08:39ProPublica reported that Don Jr.'s lavish wedding on a private Caribbean island
08:45was heavily bankrolled by, never would have guessed it,
08:52a Russian oligarch named Umar Kremlev.
08:56He happens to have close ties to Vladimir Putin.
09:00He's head of a corrupt organization that oversees world boxing.
09:04We have no idea exactly why this Russian oligarch,
09:11with close ties to Putin, decided to spend untold amounts,
09:17perhaps in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to rent an island
09:22and pay for a firework show at the wedding.
09:26But what goes around comes around.
09:29There's no free lunch.
09:31And I'm often asked the question,
09:35what does Putin have on Trump?
09:40Why has Vladimir Putin been so persuasive in this apparent bromance
09:48with the President of the United States?
09:51And if there are other deals like this one,
09:55and the wedding may just be the more colorful of them,
09:59the answer may be, follow the money.
10:04Because Donald Trump is all about the money,
10:08and the costs are not only money to taxpayers,
10:14they are a compromise and a degrading of our values,
10:20our standing around the world,
10:23our self-worth and dignity as a nation.
10:29And the grifts just keep on grifting.
10:34For some people, Donald Trump is a gift that keeps on giving.
10:38But it's almost entirely to his family and his billionaire friends.
10:43And that's why we're here today to say enough is enough.
10:48The American people should know what's happening.
10:50Thanks, Mr. Chairman.
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