Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, released this statement during the Democratic hearing exploring Trump’s crypto crimes and the implications of the Republican-led crypto market structure bill. This hearing follows a request from the entire Committee Democratic caucus urging a Minority Day hearing to properly explore these issues.

Watch the full Committee hearing here.

“Thank you very much, Chairman Hill.

I’d like to take a moment to do a little bit of an explanation about what is known as Minority Day. This is Minority Day, and I did not expect the Chairman to be here, but that’s his right to be here. He is the Chair of this Committee. He knows the rules and I’m so pleased that he joined us on Minority Day. Minority Day is organized by the opposite party in order to get more information out. In order to straighten the record. In order to make sure that the path that we’re on is well understood around why it is necessary to have more information. So, despite the fact that I did not know the Chairman was going to take over today, I'm very pleased about it because we get a chance to hear even some of the information that has not been explored during the regular Committee hearing.

So, let me start by saying the unfortunate reality is that Republicans on this Committee refuse to openly admit that Donald Trump is abusing his position as President to enrich himself off crypto.

This is an unusual time in the history of this country and while we disagree on many issues, sometimes we’re able to compromise. We’re able to work together. There are other times it is more difficult. But this is highly unusual that we have the President of the United States that is enriching himself off this crypto currency. A President of the United States who is enriching his family. A President of the United States in the middle of our negotiations is creating more opportunities for himself, whether it is on crypto, as you know it, or stablecoin.

And so, the Republicans have ignored the $TRUMP memecoin that has collectively lost his investors $2 billion, while he pocketed $350 million.

They’ve ignored the memecoin dinner where guests —this is outrageous—spent $140 million to curry favor from the White House, but were instead served cheap food and ditched by Trump after 20 minutes.

It wasn't about a dinner. It was about connecting with the President and gaining favor. And so, you show up, you spend all of this money, you get to know him and you want to ride the train of increasing your wealth on crypto.

And so, they’ve ignored the ways Melania and their sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr. have used crypto to multiply their family’s wealth.

They’ve ignored World Liberty Financial, and the various crypto deals Trump has brokered in the Middle East, that have exploded his wealth, even as Americans are getting poorer and being squeezed by Trump’s tariffs.

They’ve ignored what is undoubtedly the biggest scam and abuse of power in history so they can jam through a dangerous crypto market structure bill that I call the ‘COMPLEXITY Act.’ Not a single provision in this bill addresses the crimes I’ve laid out. In fact, this bill only legitimizes it.

So, Committee Democrats have been left with no choice but to force Republicans to convene a hearing, with our own witnesses, where we will discuss what Republicans are so afraid to do—openly and honestly address Trump’s crypto crimes. Let me be clear, next Tuesday, Committee Republicans are rushing to pass what I call the ‘COMPLEXITY Act’ without addressing these concerns that not just Democrats, but also the American public, the crypto industry, and even some in their own Administration have raised regarding this bill.”

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