A 37-year-old White House aide with no congressional experience has been handed the politically fraught task of negotiating a cryptocurrency bill that could crack down on President Donald Trump's vast holdings.
Patrick Witt, executive director of the president's Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, is the administration's point man on the Clarity Act, sweeping legislation meant to overhaul federal crypto oversight that has stalled over restrictions barring federal officials – including Trump – from sponsoring, endorsing or profiting off digital assets, reported Politico.
"The politically awkward dynamic has made Witt a key player in determining the outcome of one of the Trump administration’s top remaining legislative priorities this year," Politico reported. "Supporters say [federal oversight] is necessary to deliver the industry so-called regulatory clarity, [but] some senators are openly questioning whether Witt, who has no previous Capitol Hill experience, is in a position to cut an agreement."
Democrats say it's needed precisely because of the Trump family's crypto ventures, which include a presidential memecoin and World Liberty Financial, a token project Trump and his sons helped launch, but there are doubts on Capitol Hill about the 37-year-old former Yale quarterback's credentials.
“I don’t think he has any authority to make a deal,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), who sits on the Banking panel but has not been directly involved in the ethics talks. “I think the only person who can make that deal is President Trump.”
Witt answers to the same administration whose financial interests the rules he's negotiating would directly limit, and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) warned that even a finished agreement could be scrapped by the White House at will, leaving the talks vulnerable to being undercut from above at any moment.
Yet lawmakers in both parties say Witt has kept the process from collapsing. Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), who is leading the GOP side of the ethics talks, said Witt has served as one of the only effective channels between two camps that rarely speak to each other directly, briefing senior White House staff on exactly how far the negotiations can bend. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) called him constructive and genuinely invested in getting to a result.
The White House, for its part, rejects any notion that the arrangement is compromised. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt has insisted the president and his family have never engaged in — and never will engage in — conflicts of interest tied to crypto, even as the bill being negotiated exists largely because lawmakers don't believe that.
Witt has also brokered a separate truce between banks and crypto firms with Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), though Wall Street lobbyists say it falls short. Talks continue as Republicans race to get the bill to the floor before August recess, with a fresh fight over state attorneys general's enforcement power now threatening to blow up the deal.