Former Hogan Lovells partner and ex-Trump White House special counsel Ty Cobb has delivered his most scathing public attack yet on his former boss over crypto earnings.
Cobb appeared on CNN’s OutFront with Erin Burnett following Tuesday’s release of Trump’s annual financial disclosure, a 927-page document filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.
The document revealed Trump earned over $500 million from World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture co-founded with his sons Donald Jr. and Eric that sells governance tokens and a USD1 stablecoin.
Trump also earned more than $635 million in royalties from CIC Digital LLC connected to his $TRUMP meme coin, which he launched three days before his second inauguration.
The combined crypto haul surpasses $1 billion, with the coins having cratered in value since they were sold, leaving buyers at a significant loss while Trump retained the proceeds.
When Burnett asked whether any of this was legal, Cobb replied directly: “I don’t believe so. Certainly, I don’t think it was contemplated by the Founders when they created the emoluments clause.”
Cobb questioned how the commemorative coins, which generated several hundred million dollars, could be anything other than a violation of the Emoluments Clause, a constitutional bar on presidents personally profiting from their office.
“He creates policies that can only enrich himself and his family,” Cobb said, adding: “I mean, we are seeing the greatest onslaught of corruption in the history of mankind in the last 18 months.”
Cobb invoked the $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund that Trump and Todd Blanche attempted to extract from the Treasury, which emerged after Trump dropped a $10 billion IRS lawsuit in May.
He drew a pointed comparison with Hunter Biden, saying: “When you talk about the scale, you’ve got Hunter Biden, who if they traced every dollar that he was accused of ever having, he couldn’t ante in the game that Trump is playing.”
Burnett cited a New York Times report finding at least 14 companies tied to Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s son are pursuing federal mining contracts backed by roughly $9 billion in guaranteed government financing.
Cobb also referenced a separate disclosure from the previous month in which Trump listed recent trades of up to $750 million, many involving government contractors, calling it part of a broader pattern.
“So, the grift is on. It’s stunning,” Cobb concluded, offering his sharpest summary of what he described as an unprecedented accumulation of wealth by a sitting president.
White House Spokesperson Anna Kelly pushed back, telling the Daily Beast: “This is the same, tired narrative that Democrats have pushed against President Trump, his family, and his administration for a decade.”
Kelly added that Trump “proudly made the United States the crypto capital of the world” through executive actions, including supporting legislation such as the GENIUS Act, claiming all actions were taken in the best interest of the American people.