Schumer floats anti-corruption bureau with "real teeth" aimed squarely at Trump's $1.4B crypto bag 🦷

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer introduced legislation on Thursday to create a standalone federal agency charged with investigating, enforcing against and preventing executive branch corruption, singling out President Donald Trump's "various, and extremely lucrative, cryptocurrency ventures" as a primary target. The bill, dubbed the Anti-Corruption Bureau Creation Act and cosponsored by Senators Andy Kim, Alex Padilla and Jeff Merkley, would consolidate the US Federal Election Commission, Office of Government Ethics and Office of Special Counsel "under one roof" within a new bureau led by a bipartisan group of seven Senate-confirmed members.

The legislation cites Congress' findings that Trump disclosed earning more than $2 billion from investments in 2025, including $1.4 billion tied to crypto, and that his family holds more than $1 billion in a crypto fund tied to foreign governments. Schumer described the proposed agency as having "real teeth" with enforcement authority at a Public Citizen forum, and said it would create mechanisms for private citizens and state authorities to recover funds he characterized as stolen from "Americans through corruption." "This new bureau is one where these institutions work in symbiosis, strengthening each other and eliminating barriers between them which often got in the way," Schumer said. "It replaces a broken patchwork of watchdogs, none of which were built for this moment, with one, powerful anti-corruption agency, ready to act anywhere, anytime corruption strikes."

The bill's introduction lands in the middle of a wider debate over Trump's ties to the crypto industry and their effect on Democratic support for the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act. Although the White House agreed to certain ethics provisions in the market structure bill, many lawmakers have said those measures do not go far enough to address the president's potential conflicts of interest. The Senate also hosted a public forum earlier in the week led by Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Van Hollen focused on Trump's crypto connections.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau Creation Act would require Republican support to clear both chambers of Congress, where the GOP holds a slim majority. Even if it advanced before 2028, Trump could veto the legislation, forcing a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate to override. Cointelegraph reached out to the White House for comment on the proposed legislation but did not receive an immediate response.