Despite his Wall Street firm’s heavy involvement with Bitcoin and the Tether stablecoin project, Trump’s Commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick has declined to say whether he would recuse himself from the president’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets.
Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell asked Lutnick if he will recuse himself from the group, which has been tasked with developing stablecoin policies, and if not, to “please explain how this decision does not present a conflict or the appearance of a conflict, given your extensive ties to Tether.”
“I will follow applicable government ethics laws and regulations based on guidance from the Ethics Office of the Department of Commerce,” Lutnick wrote in response to her question. No answer was provided for her second question regarding an explanation.
It was the same, canned non-answer that Lutnick provided to several other Democrats who asked him if he would recuse from other matters that appear to pose a conflict of interest with his business or his family’s investments.
Cantor Fitzgerald is the primary custodian for Tether and holds the Treasury bills that make up a majority of the company’s reserves. It is also developing a $2 billion Bitcoin financing program that will be supported by Tether, according to the Wall Street Journal. Lutnick has been CEO of the firm since 1991.
Trump’s executive order establishing the crypto working group says that the secretary of Commerce shall be a member, along with the secretary of the Treasury, the attorney general, and others. The group is tasked with proposing a regulatory framework governing digital assets, including stablecoins, as well as evaluating the potential creation of a national digital asset stockpile.
Lutnick has said he will hand his company’s involvement with Tether over to his Cantor Fitzgerald colleagues, if he is confirmed. One of those colleagues is his son Brandon Lutnick, a chairman with the firm who previously interned for Tether’s Swiss business unit.
