By Alejandra Jaramillo, CNN
(CNN) — An investment firm tied to the United Arab Emirates acquired nearly half of the Trump family’s cryptocurrency company, a $500 million stake, four days before President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, according to a report Sunday by The Wall Street Journal.
The deal, signed by the president’s son Eric Trump, gave the Emirati-backed firm a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial, the Trump-linked crypto venture co-founded by family members of the president and Steve Witkoff, his top envoy to the Middle East, The Journal reported.
The business partnership between the Trumps and Emirati-linked investors raises fresh questions about the president’s potential conflicts of interest. The Journal cited sources and company documents that showed the buyers — lieutenants of Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a United Arab Emirates royal, the country’s national security adviser and manager of its largest wealth fund — paid up front, with $187 million going to Trump family entities and at least $31 million going to Witkoff family entities.
The White House sought to tamp down any concerns over conflicts.
“President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public – which is why they overwhelmingly re-elected him to this office, despite years of lies and false accusations against him and his businesses from the fake news media. President Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children. There are no conflicts of interest,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement Sunday.
“Mr. Witkoff, like all Administration officials, takes seriously his compliance with the government ethics rules. As Special Envoy for Peace Missions, he has not and does not participate in any official matters that could impact his financial interests. He has also divested from World Liberty Financial, notwithstanding his ability and willingness to recuse,” White House counsel David Warrington told CNN in a statement.
CNN has reached out to the United Arab Emirates Embassy for comment.
A spokesperson for World Liberty Financial confirmed the investment to CNN on Sunday, stressing that neither Trump nor Witkoff was involved in the transaction.
“Neither President Trump nor Steve Witkoff had any involvement whatsoever in this transaction and have had no involvement in World Liberty Financial since taking office,” the spokesperson, David Wachsman, told CNN in a statement.
As part of the agreement, two senior officers at companies backed by Sheikh Tahnoon joined World Liberty’s board after he pressed the US for access to advanced artificial intelligence chips, according to The Journal, an allegation Wachsman flatly denied to CNN.
“Any claim that this deal had anything to do with the Administration’s actions on chips is 100% false,” Wachsman said in a statement to CNN. “The leftwing media is dishonestly pushing baseless innuendo in an effort to deceive the public and smear our company. As a private business, we operate by the same rules and regulations as any other company in our space, do not want or receive any special treatment, and reject the fact-free suggestions to the contrary.”
Wachsman said the decision was driven purely by business considerations.
“We made the deal in question because we strongly believe that it was what was best for our company as we continue to grow,” he said, adding that “the idea that, when raising capital, a privately-held American company should be held to some unique standard that no other similar company would be held is both ridiculous and un-American.”
Still, the transaction is unprecedented in modern US politics, involving a foreign