Khanna opens probe into Trump family crypto firm's $500 million Emirati investment

Rep. Ro Khanna, the top Democrat on the House Select Committee on China, launched an investigation this week into a $500 million investment by an Emirati royal into World Liberty Financial — a cryptocurrency company tied to President Trump and his family. Khanna fired off a letter to the company's CEO, Zach Witkoff, demanding details about the deal and its implications.

The investment, made last January by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan shortly before Trump took office, secured a 49 percent stake in the crypto venture. Democrats are now tripping over each other to call it corrupt, The Hill reported. Sen. Elizabeth Warren called it:

"Corruption, plain and simple."

Rep. Gregory Meeks called it a "national security concern." Khanna's letter alleged the transactions bear the appearance "not just… of impropriety, but of illegality." And just like that, the machinery of congressional theater lurched into motion.

What Democrats Want You to See — and What They Don't

Here is the timeline Democrats are building their case around: World Liberty Financial launched in late 2024 by Trump, Steve Witkoff, and their sons. Sheikh Tahnoon invested $500 million last January. Several months later, the Trump administration agreed to allow the UAE to import 500,000 advanced AI chips. Last fall, Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao. In May, an investment firm called MGX poured $2 billion into Binance using World Liberty Financial's stablecoin — a transaction that later drew scrutiny.

Laid out in sequence, it looks like a connect-the-dots exercise. Democrats want you to draw one line: money in, favors out. But sequence is not causation, and proximity is not proof. Washington has spent decades confusing the two whenever it's politically convenient.

Notice what's missing from the outrage. No one has produced evidence that Trump personally directed the investment, negotiated the AI chip deal as a quid pro quo, or even participated in World Liberty Financial's day-to-day operations. The Wall Street Journal — which first reported the deal — acknowledged the President had no involvement in it. World Liberty Financial spokesperson David Wachsman put it bluntly:

"A baseless assault."

Wachsman noted that even the Journal's own reporting acknowledged the President had no involvement in the deal. That detail tends to get buried beneath the avalanche of press releases from Senate Democrats.

The Khanna Letter

Khanna's letter to Zach Witkoff presses on two legal claims. First, that Steve Witkoff — who now serves as U.S. special envoy to the Middle East — is barred from participating in matters in which he has a financial interest. Second, that Trump is barred from accepting gifts from foreign dignitaries under the Constitution.

These are Khanna's assertions, not established findings. They are framed as though the legal questions are already settled, which they are not. The letter accused the administration of:

"Seemingly subordinating robust policy discussions to the President's personal financial interests."

That word — "seemingly" — is doing an enormous amount of work in that sentence. It is the rhetorical equivalent of a trap door. It lets Khanna imply corruption without having to prove it. If the facts don't materialize, he can retreat behind the qualifier. If they do, he can claim he saw it coming. It's a no-lose framing device, and it tells you everything about how seriously to take the accusation at this stage.

The Hearing That Said More Than the Letter

While Khanna's letter grabbed headlines, the real theater unfolded at a congressional hearing on Wednesday. Rep. Gregory Meeks clashed with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, asking him to pause and investigate World Liberty Financial's application for a bank charter at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Bessent didn't flinch. He reminded Meeks that the OCC is:

"An independent entity."

Then he went further — accusing Meeks of traveling to Venezuela in 2006 to lobby Hugo Chávez. The exchange crystallized something important: Democrats demanding investigations into foreign financial entanglements don't always have the cleanest hands themselves. Meeks didn't get the moment he wanted. Bessent made sure of that.

Warren's Expanding Target List

Sen. Warren, never one to let a news cycle pass without a demand, called on the administration to reverse its decision approving advanced AI chip exports to the UAE. She also called for several officials to testify before Congress, including David Sacks and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Warren's approach treats every business relationship involving anyone adjacent to the administration as inherently suspect — a standard that, if applied evenly across Washington, would shut down half the city.

It won't be applied evenly. It never is.

What This Is Actually About

Strip away the rhetoric and you're left with a straightforward reality: Democrats have no legislative power to stop the Trump agenda, so they are manufacturing investigative spectacles designed to feed a media ecosystem hungry for scandal. The strategy is not new. The execution is not subtle.

Sen. Bernie Moreno offered the clearest rebuttal Thursday at a Puck News event. He argued the crypto firm has:

"Nothing to do with what Trump does as president."

Moreno added:

"This is a guy who doesn't take a salary. This is a guy who doesn't need to do this job."

That distinction matters. Trump entered office as a wealthy man with global business interests. Everyone knew this. Voters weighed it and chose him anyway — twice. The idea that a pre-inauguration investment by a foreign sovereign wealth figure constitutes an impeachable offense requires a chain of assumptions that Democrats have not come close to proving.

The Pattern Behind the Probe

This investigation fits a pattern that began long before World Liberty Financial existed. Democrats pursue the appearance of corruption with the same vigor they'd apply to actual corruption — because in the media environment they've cultivated, there is no functional difference. The accusation is the conviction. The letter is the evidence. The hearing is the trial.

They did it with Russia. They did it with Ukraine. Now they're doing it with crypto and AI chips. The mechanism is always the same:

• Identify a business transaction involving someone in Trump's orbit
• Place it next to a policy decision on a timeline
• Declare the proximity suspicious
• Demand an investigation that generates months of headlines
• Move on to the next one before the first concludes

The cycle doesn't require results. It requires only attention.

What Comes Next

World Liberty Financial's bank charter application sits with the OCC. Khanna's letter demands answers from Zach Witkoff. Warren wants officials hauled before committees. None of this will move quickly, and none of it is designed to. The point is to keep the story alive through drip-feed revelations and indignant press conferences.

Meanwhile, the administration will continue governing. The AI chip agreement with the UAE reflects a strategic calculation about technology competition with China — a subject Khanna, as the top Democrat on the China committee, should understand better than most. The question of whether American technology reaches allied nations or gets locked in a regulatory closet while Beijing fills the vacuum is not a corruption story. It's a geopolitics story. Democrats are choosing to read it as the former because the latter doesn't generate subpoenas.

Ro Khanna sent a letter. Elizabeth Warren held a press conference. Gregory Meeks got outmaneuvered at a hearing by a Treasury Secretary who did his homework. The investigation has begun — and already, the investigators look like they need investigating.