US House Speaker Mike Johnson has brushed off corruption concerns surrounding President Donald Trump’s dinner for the top holders of his memecoin and dodged answering whether the list of attendees should be released in the interest of transparency.
Johnson told CNN’s Jake Tapper on May 25 that he knew nothing about Trump’s May 22 memecoin dinner and opted not to share his opinion on the event, which 35 House Democrats have called for the Justice Department to investigate.
“We do not know who was there. The list has not been released. We do not know how much of the money came from outside the country,” Tapper told Johnson. “I really have a difficult time imagining that if this was a Democratic president doing the exact same thing, you wouldn’t be outraged.”
“Look, I don’t know anything about the dinner,” Johnson answered, claiming he “was a little busy this past week,” focusing on passing a $1.6 trillion federal budget funding bill.
“I’m not going to comment on something I haven’t even heard about. I’m not sure who was there or what the purpose was.”
Johnson then claimed Trump was “the most transparent president” in history and “has nothing to hide.”
Democrats have called for the list of attendees of Trump’s crypto dinner event to be released, as they suspect Trump may be accepting foreign investments in violation of federal bribery statutes or the foreign emoluments clause of the Constitution.
Under the emoluments clause, the US president is barred from accepting any gift from a foreign state without the approval of Congress.
Bloomberg reported on May 7 that a majority of the attendees at the memecoin dinner would likely be foreign nationals.
Trump invited those who were among the top 220 largest holders of the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin to his event at the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia.
The most notable attendee was the Chinese-born Tron CEO Justin Sun, the largest holder of the TRUMP token and the biggest backer of the Trumps’ crypto platform World Liberty Financial.
Sheldon Xia, the CEO of Cayman Islands-based crypto exchange BitMart, posted pictures to X of himself at the event, while Australian crypto entrepreneur Kain Warwick told The New York Times on May 12 that he would attend the event after stocking up on enough TRUMP to break into the top 25 investors on the leaderboard.
In a separate May 22 press conference, several Democrats called for the release of Trump’s memecoin dinner list.
One of those speaking was Senator Elizabeth Warren, a fierce crypto critic who called Trump’s memecoin dinner an “orgy of corruption.”
Democrats call for Trump to cut crypto ties entirely
Several House Democrats, led by Maxine Waters, introduced the “Stop TRUMP in Crypto Act” on May 22 to prevent Trump and his family from profiting off crypto while in office.
Trump has used the “power of the presidency to shamelessly promote and profit” from a series of crypto ventures, Waters said in a statement.
Related: Senators plan to amend GENIUS Act to address Trump family’s stablecoin
Waters pointed to the TRUMP memecoin, which she claims has increased Trump’s net worth by over $350 million, as well as his involvement in World Liberty Financial and the platform’s stablecoin, USD1.
An additional 14 US lawmakers supported the bill, including Nydia Velázquez, Brad Sherman and Gregory Meeks.
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