Comer Says Trump Family Making Millions From Crypto Business Is Ok Because ‘They’re Admitting They’re Doing This’

Rep. James Comer (R-KY) said the mind-boggling amount of money that President Donald Trump and his family have made this year off of cryptocurrency is above board because “they’re admitting they’re doing this.”

Comer, the chair of the House Oversight Committee, became a notable figure when he investigated former President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden over what Comer called a foreign “influence peddling” scheme. Of particular interest to Comer was a do-nothing board position Hunter Biden held at a Ukrainian energy company while his father was a private citizen. Additionally, Comer dubiously claimed that Joe Biden took $40,000 in “China money” as part of the aforementioned alleged scheme.

Comer appeared on Tuesday’s edition of The Lead on CNN, where Jake Tapper pointed to a Reuters investigation showing that the Trump family business, the Trump Organization, has seen a 17-fold increase in income compared to last year.

At the center of the windfall is World Liberty Financial, which was founded by Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Zach Witkoff, the son of Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. Reuters reported that more than 90% of the Trump Organization’s income comes from crypto, which includes sales of World Liberty Financial tokens. That includes a $100 million bulk purchase by a company based in the United Arab Emirates.

“There’s a Reuters report today on the Trump family’s crypto ventures based on the family’s own financial disclosures,” Tapper said. “‘Reuters found the Trump Organization’s income from the first half of this year shot from $51 million to $864 million, about $800 million of that is from crypto.’ And the story details how most of the buyers are foreign investors and how all this money is gonna belong to Trump when he leaves office. Is this something that you’re gonna look into at all?”

The chairman replied that Trump’s business is different because the president and his family are openly soliciting money from domestic and foreign investors:

Well, it’s something that we are, like you, reading about this. We’re trying to digest it. The difference between the way the Trump family operates and the Biden family is they’re admitting they’re doing this. The president campaigned as a business guy.

I’m not defending the policy. I think there needs to be ethics reforms. And I had a bill that Jamie Raskin killed last session because he thought that Kamala Harris was gonna win the presidency. But it would’ve increased the disclosure.

So, as long as you disclose your income and disclose the sources, I think that’s acceptable. If you lie about the income, you say, “I never received money from China.” And then we subpoena your bank records, and there’s $5 million from China. I think that’s a problem.

So, you know, I think it’s a legitimate question. A lot of people are concerned, especially since the crypto industry isn’t regulated. But as far as my position now, as long as the president’s disclosing this and they’re filling out disclosures and they’re answering questions, he answers questions about it. If you ask him about his crypto, he’ll say, “Yes, they’ve got the best crypto [currency] in the world.”

Now, do the voters like that? I think that’s gonna be an issue in the next presidential election. I think it’s a fair question. But from an ethics standpoint and from an oversight standpoint, the president is disclosing this income. And that, I think is the most important part, the transparency.

Watch above via CNN.

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