US senators press SEC over enforcement chief exit, Justin Sun’s case

Two Democratic senators are requesting answers from the US Securities and Exchange Commission over the resignation of its enforcement director, Margaret Ryan, in March, after a Reuters report claimed she clashed with the agency’s leaders over certain cases involving people with ties to US President Donald Trump.

In a letter to SEC Chair Paul Atkins on Monday, Senator Richard Blumenthal questioned the agency over the decision to drop the fraud case against Tron founder Justin Sun, a partner of the Trump-backed World Liberty Financial (WLFI) crypto platform, 11 days before Ryan stepped down.

A separate letter from Senator Elizabeth Warren has also questioned the SEC over the director’s resignation and whether Ryan “faced resistance” from SEC leadership over certain cases tied to Trump’s circle.

Both letters add to the US Democratic Party’s ongoing scrutiny of Trump’s crypto ventures, which include WLFI, the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin and Trump Media & Technology Group, with critics warning of conflicts of interest with his presidential duties.

Trump also pardoned former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao in October, sparking additional concerns of an insider agreement, which Zhao’s lawyer has denied, while the SEC has dropped several other notable crypto investigations in 2025. 

Blumenthal claimed the SEC “may have exercised preferential treatment for financial partners of President Trump against the advice and warnings of senior staff when the agency declined to litigate credible fraud cases.” 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk was also reportedly on Ryan’s radar before she officially resigned on March 16, Reuters reported.

Extract of Richard Blumenthal’s letter to Paul Atkins on Monday. Source: US Senate

Blumenthal wants receipts of the SEC’s chats with crypto leaders

Blumenthal is seeking “all records and communications” between the Division of Enforcement and SEC senior leadership since Jan. 20, 2025, relating to potential enforcement actions against crypto companies.

The Democratic senator also wants records of the SEC’s communications with the Trump and Witkoff families, as WLFI is led by Zach Witkoff and Trump’s three sons, Eric, Donald Jr. and Barron, were three of the company’s founding members.

Related: SEC is no longer a ‘cop on the beat’ on crypto, says US lawmaker

Blumenthal said illicit crypto activity surged to $154 billion in 2025, Trump’s first year back in office, alleging that Sun’s Tron played an “outsized role in this dynamic.”

“While Tron accounts for a third of all payment tokens in the crypto ecosystem by some metrics, 58% of all illicit finance in crypto occurred on Tron’s network in 2024,” he said.

“This is a clear example of how President Trump’s blatant crypto corruption creates back doors for his family’s business partners, creating a pay-to-play enforcement regime that turns a blind eye to grave threats to national security and consumer protection.”

Cointelegraph reached out to Tron for comment, but didn’t receive an immediate response.

Warren’s letter, meanwhile, called Ryan’s short term at the SEC “troubling.”

“Reports that Judge Ryan was not given the latitude to enforce the law against allies of President Trump fit into a broader narrative that has marked your tenure as SEC Chair: if you have the ability to pay or have connections to the President, you can act with impunity.”

While the SEC hasn’t publicly commented on Ryan’s departure, a spokesperson for the agency told Cointelegraph last week that it would continue to make “enforcement decisions based on facts, the law, and policy — not politics.”

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