Connect with us

News

Trump vows to sack SEC boss and end ‘persecution’ of crypto industry

Published

on

Trump vows to sack SEC boss and end ‘persecution’ of crypto industry

Donald Trump said he would end the “persecution” of the crypto industry, sack the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and free a convict the community views as a martyr.

In a direct pitch to cryptocurrency devotees at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tennessee, on Saturday, the Republican candidate promised to end the Biden administration’s “crusade” against bitcoin.

“I pledge to the bitcoin community, that the day I take the oath of office, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ anti-crypto crusade will be over,” said Trump.

“On day one, I will fire Gary Gensler,” Trump said to a massive roar from the roughly 5,000 people seated in the audience.

Crypto’s embrace of Trump comes against the backdrop of a difficult few years for the industry, which has faced an aggressive clampdown from the SEC. Crypto is “a field that has been rife with fraud and manipulation”, Gensler said earlier this year.

Advertisement

The SEC has pursued numerous crypto companies and executives, helping put FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and Binance founder Changpeng Zhao behind bars, and launched lawsuits against exchanges Coinbase, Kraken and Gemini, payments provider Ripple Labs and blockchain software company Consensys.

Trump on Saturday promised to end the “repression”, saying rules should be “written by people who love your industry, not by people who hate your industry”.

He also said he would instruct the Department of Treasury to abandon the creation of a central bank digital currency, and appoint a bitcoin and crypto advisory council.

The pitch was a dramatic reversal for Trump, who has previously claimed the value of cryptocurrencies was “based on thin air”, calling it “potentially a disaster waiting to happen.” He has described bitcoin as “a scam”.

But now both presidential candidates are courting the vote of ‘crypto bros’. Members of Kamala Harris’ campaign have met with people close to crypto companies in recent days in a bid to “reset” a relationship which soured during the Biden administration.

Advertisement

Trump, meanwhile, is the first major party candidate to accept donations in cryptocurrencies — and claimed on Saturday his campaign had raised $25mn in crypto donations. His running mate, JD Vance, at one point owned up to $250,000 in bitcoin in a Coinbase account, according to his 2022 financial disclosure form.

The support for Trump was obvious all over the conference centre. Trumpers in branded gear sporting “Make Money Great Again” slogans mixed with attendees in Satoshi T-shirts, orange cowboy hats, dresses and high heels. Trump spoke on “Nakamoto” stage,” in reference to Satoshi, the pseudonymous developer of bitcoin.

Some attendees wore T-shirts calling to free Ross Ulbricht, who was given a life sentence in 2015 for creating the online black market Silk Road, by voting for Trump. The GOP presidential nominee’s promise to commute his sentence caused the second biggest cheer of the speech, after the call to fire Gensler.

“They slander you as criminals but that happened to me, too, because I said the election was rigged,” said Trump.

Earlier at the conference, Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, who has given pro-Trump Pacs over $1.4mn this election cycle and will host a fundraiser for the ex-president next month, announced an initial $2bn lending program financing bitcoin. He added that his firm owns a “shitload of bitcoin”.

Advertisement

Some attendees said that Trump’s presence alone could flip their vote, hoping that they will have for the first time an ally in the White House.

Investor and attendee Nick Smith said he did not vote for Trump in 2020 but would choose him today over Harris.

“I think they like his F-U attitude towards the establishment,” said Smith of Trump fans.

The price of bitcoin has jumped 10 per cent to over $68,000 since Trump survived an assassination attempt on July 13. “I’m plugging for bitcoin to go over 70 — and even higher when the president speaks,” said David McIntosh, President of the Club for Growth, who is a Trump ally.

“Trump is a businessman and an entrepreneur — and he sees the opportunity that bitcoin affords the US and himself,” conference chief of staff Brandon Green said. “Over the past four years, you’ve seen a very hostile [Biden-Harris] administration towards the industry.”

Advertisement

“Bitcoin is on the ballot,” Green later said on stage.

At the conference on Friday, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr promised to direct the US Treasury to buy 4mn bitcoins, make transactions between the digital currency and the dollar “unreportable” and “nontaxable.”

Among the guest speakers was Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked a tremendous amount of information about US government surveillance. He told the crowd: “Cast a vote, but don’t join a cult.”

North Carolina Democratic lawmaker Wiley Nickel called for Harris to lead a party “reset” on crypto. Nickel, Ro Khanna and other Democrats in Congress sent a letter to the Democratic National Committee on Saturday calling for the next administration to “select a pro-innovation SEC chair”. He got a smattering of applause — but then was shouted down when he read on stage past Trump tweets critical of cryptocurrencies.

“I want to say this as politely and respectfully as I can. Donald Trump was president for four years. He did nothing on this issue,” said Nickel. “Right now, I can tell you: He is totally full of shit.”

Advertisement

Additional reporting by Nikou Asgari

News

Trump fires last members of election commission, inciting fears of midterm ‘chaos’

Published

on

Trump fires last members of election commission, inciting fears of midterm ‘chaos’

Donald Trump has terminated the remaining members of the independent, federal commission that assists election administration officials nationwide just a few months before the midterm elections, multiple outlets reported Thursday.

The remaining three commissioners of the four-member bipartisan commission ⁠were forced out on Thursday in different ways. The one Republican appointee resigned and the other ⁠two, Democratic appointees were notified of their terminations via email from ​the White House presidential personnel office.

“On ‌behalf of President ‌Donald J Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position ‌as Commissioner of the Election Assistance Commission is terminated, effective immediately. Thank you for your service,” the email, seen by Reuters, said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Election Assistance Commission serves as a “national clearinghouse of information on election ‌administration”, accredits testing laboratories and certifies voting systems, and maintains the national mail-voter registration form developed by the National ​Voter Registration Act of 1993, according to the commission’s website. The terminations follow Trump and top administration officials’ advocacy to change vote-by-mail requirements and investigations into the 2020 election outcome, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

Advertisement

“It is ⁠irresponsible and dangerous that this Administration remains dead set on ​causing chaos for ​our election officials across this ​country,” Arizona secretary of state Adrian Fontes said in a ​Thursday statement. “This ‌move undermines the integrity ​of nonpartisan ​election administration.”

The 2002 law that established the commission, the Help America Vote Act, states the president can appoint replacements to the commission.

It is unclear how Trump will move ahead with the commission.

Reuters contributed reporting

Advertisement
Continue Reading

News

Former Olympian pleads not guilty in reflecting pool vandalism charges

Published

on

Former Olympian pleads not guilty in reflecting pool vandalism charges

Former U.S. Olympian David Hearn (left) walks with his attorney Norman Eisen to speak to reporters and protesters gathered after his arraignment at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.

Finn Gomez/Getty Images


hide caption



toggle caption

Advertisement

Finn Gomez/Getty Images

Former U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn pleaded not guilty to damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in D.C. Superior Court Thursday morning.

Federal prosecutors charged Hearn with a single count of destruction of property causing more than $1,000 in damage to the pool.

Hearn has previously claimed, which his attorneys repeated during a short press conference outside the court, that he simply touched the water in the pool out of curiosity.

Advertisement

The Trump administration had just completed a $14 million renovation of the pool.

But shortly after the work finished, peeling paint and algae gathered in the water. The remodel has been largely criticized as a massive failure and waste of taxpayer dollars.

Superior Court Judge Carmen McLean released Hearn on his own recognizance. His next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 5.

Norm Eisen, one of Hearn’s attorneys, spoke to reporters outside of court following the hearing. He said the administration is using Hearn as a “scapegoat … for their own failures.”

“It is not a crime to touch the reflecting pool, to touch water in the United States of America,” he said.

Advertisement

Prosecutors say there is a host of evidence against Hearn.

This is a developing story.

Continue Reading

News

Three more people charged with damaging Reflecting Pool after Trump’s multimillion-dollar restoration | CNN Politics

Published

on

Three more people charged with damaging Reflecting Pool after Trump’s multimillion-dollar restoration | CNN Politics

Three more people have been criminally charged with destruction of property at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Officers say they detained Cameron Thiers, Sophie Dennison-Gibby and Justin Carreno one Saturday afternoon in June and described in court documents witnessing them peeling and removing pieces of blue paint from the Reflecting Pool.

One officer “witnessed Carreno reach down into the reflecting pool and pull up a piece of the blue paint,” according to the court documents.

The officer who detained Dennison-Gibby “found 1 additional piece of the reflecting pool liner” in her purse, the documents said.

All three incidents were recorded on the officers’ body worn cameras, they said in the court documents.

Advertisement

Several “partnering law enforcement agencies assigned to the Reflecting Pool” working with US Park Police were involved in detaining the two men and one woman — including officers from Texas, Oklahoma, Montana and California.

One of the officers said in court documents that Thiers “admitted to removing a piece of blue sealant from the Reflecting Pool and still had it in his hand when I made contact with him.”

The three defendants were arraigned in court Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charges of destruction of property with a value less than $1,000. The judge ordered them to stay away from the Reflecting Pool.

Lawyers for Thiers and Dennison-Gibby declined to comment. CNN has reached out to Carreno’s attorney.

If found guilty of destruction of property, the defendants could be fined up to $1,000 and face a maximum of 180 days behind bars.

Advertisement

The New York Times first reported that three additional people had been charged with damaging the Reflecting Pool.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that vandals caused major damage to the pool by gashing the lining after his administration spent more than $14 million on renovations, though he has not provided evidence to support that claim. The officers who charged Carreno, Thiers and Dennison-Gibby did not accuse them of gashing the lining.

Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn was indicted by a grand jury in Washington, DC, last week for allegedly damaging the Reflecting Pool. Hearn — unlike Carreno, Thiers and Dennison-Gibby – was charged with destruction of property with a value of more than $1,000 which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, if convicted. He is set to be arraigned in court Thursday.

Crews began draining the Reflecting Pool over the weekend to make repairs, according to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, for the second time in three months.

The move comes after weeks of problems – algae blooms, green-hued water, a chipping bottom and the administration’s allegations of vandalism – that have plagued the iconic landmark, making its woes the subject of national interest.

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending