Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) has launched an investigation into President Donald Trump’s meme coin dinner last Thursday and requested the names of the attendees, citing concerns that foreign governments could try to gain favor with the president through cryptocurrency deals.
“I write today to demand that you release the names of all the attendees at this dinner and provide information about the source of the money they each used to buy $TRUMP coins, so that we can prevent illegal foreign government emoluments from being pocketed without congressional consent,” Raskin wrote in a letter to Trump on Wednesday.
He argued that receiving the names of the attendees of Trump‘s private dinner will provide information about “who is putting tens of millions of dollars into our president‘s pocket so we can start to figure out what — beyond virtually worthless meme coins — they are getting in exchange for all this money.”
There were 220 attendees at the dinner, among them foreign nationals, with one confirmed guest being Chinese-born crypto billionaire Justin Sun.
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“Foreign nationals — who are not allowed to donate a dollar to your presidential campaign under federal election laws — are now purchasing access to you by buying millions of dollars of your personal memecoin,” Raskin wrote.
The letter comes after Vice President JD Vance spoke at a bitcoin conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday. Vance encouraged attendees to increase their involvement in politics, as the tech sector’s power players spent over $200 million backing crypto-aligned candidates during last year’s election cycle.