Trump agrees to new bipartisan ethics provision in massive crypto bill, Republican senators say

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has agreed to a significant portion of a stringent ethics proposal that is part of broader cryptocurrency legislation headed for a key vote this week, according to three of the bill's main Republican authors.

The sweeping bill initially had just a provision included that would bar all federally elected officials and their spouses, as well as federal judges, from issuing digital assets.

A core group of Democrats, as well as Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said that didn’t go far enough to address conflict-of-interest issues they had with Trump’s crypto wealth. Their votes would be needed to advance the bill in a key vote this Tuesday.

Tillis and Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., along with several other Democrats, had demanded language that would allow state attorneys general to step in and enforce the law in addition to the Justice Department.

In announcing Trump’s agreement, Republican Sens. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Tim Scott of South Carolina and John Boozman of Arkansas said it includes a “meaningful role” for state attorneys general to play in enforcing the crypto measure should it become law.

In private, White House officials had raised concerns about giving state attorneys general the power to enforce the law, arguing that Democratic state lawyers could use it as a political weapon against the president and other GOP officials — and that it could be used by Republican attorneys general against elected Democrats, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions.

But a senior GOP aide, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity on Sunday night, said the president had agreed to “about 80%” of the proposal from Tillis and Gallego, pointing mainly to the state attorneys general provision. An updated version of the bill being released later Sunday will include a requirement to either divest or place in a blind trust any “significant” financial interest in an entity that issues cryptocurrencies, the senior GOP aide said.

Trump also agreed to language that would allow state attorneys general to sue a crypto exchange if they list a digital asset that would be barred in the overall bill, according to the aide.