These days it seems like Washington, D.C., is overflowing with public officials using their office as a personal piggie bank and for politicians looking for the next scam or grift to get rich quick. I’m disgusted by it, and I know Coloradans are too. In our state, we expect our leaders to fight for working families, protect consumers and uphold the rule of law. We have zero tolerance for corrupt politicians using the immense power of government to line their own pockets.
In the midst of all this corruption, we have the CLARITY Act — a cryptocurrency bill advancing through the U.S. Senate. This largely Republican-backed bill is a top priority of Donald Trump, his administration and a boatload of high-priced lobbyists for the crypto industry. It is also an utter disgrace and an executive branch cash-grab disguised as market regulation, but designed to turn the United States Congress into a rubber stamp for Donald Trump’s private business ventures.
Democratic Senators who claim to want to stand up to Trump and this corrupt administration have no business lending their votes to pass this bill, and I am urging Colorado’s U.S. senators, John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet, to resist this shameless grift, refuse to break ranks, and vote No on the CLARITY Act.
The hypocrisy surrounding this legislation is staggering. Donald Trump used to call crypto a scam, but the second he realized he could turn it into a multi-billion-dollar side hustle, he became its lobbyist-in-chief. Today, he is actively exploiting the presidency to expand his family’s massive crypto empire. Federal financial disclosures revealed that Trump banked over $1.4 billion in crypto income in a single year, including $635 million from his absurd, self-branded meme coin.
The corruption reached a new level of obscenity in mid-August, when executive branch banking regulators at the OCC granted conditional approval for a national trust bank charter to World Liberty Financial — the crypto firm that happens to be controlled by the Trump family.
Let’s be clear about what’s happened: Donald Trump’s own political appointees handed the Trump family business a federal license to run its own bank, issue stablecoins and print money all while Trump himself sits in the Oval Office. It is the most blatant pay-to-play abuse of executive authority in American history.
The CLARITY Act doesn’t stop this corrupt gravy train, but it paves the way for it. While the bill attempts to weakly restrict public officials from issuing coins for pay, it cements loopholes around Trump’s existing arrangements. Even worse, it bans politicians and their spouses from profiting, but conveniently exempts their adult children.
And if this toothless bill were to ultimately pass, who is supposed to enforce it? Attorney General Todd Blanche — Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer who refuses to even pretend he operates independently of the White House.
We cannot allow Donald Trump to make a mockery of our federal banking laws. Senators Hickenlooper and Bennet have a duty to defend our financial system, protect Colorado consumers from volatile scams, and put an end to this unprecedented corruption. The Senate’s job is to protect the American public, not Donald Trump’s bank account. I urge Senators Hickenlooper and Bennet to stand strong with Coloradans, reject this industry-backed giveaway, and kill the CLARITY Act on the Senate floor.
State Sen. Katie Wallace represents District 17 (Boulder and Weld counties) in the Colorado State Senate.
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