Democrats blast DOJ for giving ‘free pass’ to crypto criminals with NCET shutdown

Democratic legislators have criticized the decision of the Ministry of Justice to dismantle the national cryptocurrency application team, calling for the “absurd” decision and a gift to the bad actors.

American senator Elizabeth Warren, as well as six other Democrats in the Senate, sent a strongly written letter to the Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on April 10, urging the MJ to reverse what they described as a dangerous and erroneous change in the policy of application.

The counterou follows Memo of Blanche of April 7which officially dissolved the national team of application of the Cryptocurrency of the Doj.

In the memo, Blanche defended this decision by affirming that the DoJ is “not a regulator of digital assets” and criticized the approach of the previous administration as “reckless regulatory strategy”.

He also ordered Doj staff to focus less on cases involving crypto exchanges, mixers and offline wallets and prioritize the proceedings against people who directly victimize digital active investors.

In their letter, legislators argued that the restoration of the application of laws opens the door to the escape of sanctions, drug trafficking, scams and the exploitation of children, a large part, she warns, is facilitated by crypto mixing services designed to hide the origins of illicit funds.

The national team of the application of cryptocurrencies has managed some of the largest cases of crypto in the United States, including the Silver whitening case Against the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixture.

The letter has described the approach of memo as a “free success to cryptocurrency silver launders”.

Senators have also criticized the DOJ’s decision to end the violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, warning that it “would abdicate the Doj’s responsibility to apply federal criminal law” in the digital asset sector.

They argued that this undermines the existing anti-money laundering protections of money and creates a “systemic vulnerability” that drug traffickers, terrorists and fraudsters will exploit “on a large scale”.

The letter has continued to highlight the success of NCET since its training in 2021, citing several high -level convictions, asset crises of several million dollars and support for state and local agencies. Driving the team, they affirm, weakens the capacity of the application of laws to manage cases of complex cryptography.

Adding a political angle, the legislators also wondered if President Donald Trump’s crypto companies influenced the DOJ’s decision.

Projects supported by the Trump family have aroused criticism in recent months. World Liberty Financial, who launched his own cryptocurrency last year and plans to introduce a stablecoinhas Face -to -face On the substantial control of the Trump family and the conflicts of potential interests.

“Why could you dismantle a team that is such an important player in the fight against crime based on cryptocurrency? Your decisions give rise to concerns that the interest of President Trump to sell his cryptocurrency could be the reason for the insurance of the police,” wrote the legislators.

“We urge you to reconsider these decisions,” the senators wrote, asking for a briefing at staff level by May 1 to explain the justification for the MJ’s decision and its potential impact on the criminal application linked to the crypto.

Warren, a vocal critic of cryptocurrencies, recently continued several Republicans about their cryptographic links, including Trump and Crypto-Tsar AI David Sacks and candidate for the Secretary of Commerce Howard Libenick.