Crypto bill ethics talks wobble as senators eye Trump engagement

Senators emerged from a closed-door meeting focused on ethics language that Democrats want to insert into landmark cryptocurrency legislation split over the status of the talks, with one Republican calling the negotiations a “circus.”

A bipartisan group of senators met in the Capitol Tuesday with a top White House crypto policy adviser to negotiate language that would restrict government officials’ engagements with digital assets — a key demand for Senate Democrats who have raised concerns about the Trump family’s crypto businesses. Lawmakers are trying to come to a deal ahead of a Thursday markup in the Senate Banking Committee.

“The Democrats are trying to find reasons to vote against the bill and making up a bunch of bullshit excuses,” said Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), who called the meeting a “circus.”

“Super annoying,” he added.

Other members struck a more positive note.

“Sen. Moreno is prone to exaggeration,” said Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, a key Democratic negotiator. “We are working constructively. I think that could be his interpretation and then, it that’s the interpretation, maybe he should stop going to the meetings.”

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), a key GOP negotiator, said lawmakers are “making progress.”

“You have to go into those discussions assuming that the other side is negotiating in good faith,” she said. “And if that turns out not to be the case, then shame on them, not shame on me. I’m trying to get a deal here.”

Patrick Witt, a top Trump administration crypto policy adviser, is representing the White House in the talks. But lawmakers on both sides say they want sign-off from Trump on any final ethics deal.

“Whatever we agree to, it has to be signed off by Trump,” Gallego said earlier Tuesday. “And if he doesn’t sign off on it, then it doesn’t happen.”

Lummis said in an interview that she and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) have agreed to seek a meeting with Trump about the ethics issue if White House staff are unable get him on board.

“If we end up with a ethics proposal that the White House staffers think is on the bubble in terms of the president’s ability to swallow it, it would be important for us to go,” she said.

Republicans have said that ethics language can’t go into the bill that the Banking panel votes on this Thursday due to jurisdictional issues, but Democrats are insisting on a deal ahead of the markup. Gallego told reporters the ethics issue “will have to be addressed before the Banking Committee,” but added: “It doesn’t necessarily have to be addressed through the Banking Committee.”