Senate Democrats Seek Ethics Probe of US Chip Deal With UAE
Senate Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., urged three government watchdog offices to investigate whether two Trump administration officials had conflicts of interest while advocating for the U.S. to sell advanced AI chips to the United Arab Emirates.
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In a letter Sept. 23 to acting Commerce Department Inspector General Duane Townsend, acting State Department Inspector General Arne Baker and Eric Ueland, acting director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, the senators said they’re concerned that David Sacks, the White House’s AI and crypto czar, and Steve Witkoff, U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, had significant crypto business ties to the UAE’s national security adviser while promoting the chip deal.
The lawmakers also pointed to reports that said Sacks and Witkoff "overrode the concerns of national security officials who raised alarms about the UAE’s close ties" to China and its "offensive cyber capabilities, including concerns that the UAE would help China 'gain access to Emirati data centers, accelerating its efforts to build A.I-enhanced weapons that could someday be deployed against American soldiers.'"
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.
Democratic lawmakers have said the chip deal, which was unveiled in May, lacks adequate safeguards to prevent China from accessing U.S. technology (see 2505150063 and 2505160049). The Trump administration has insisted that the agreement will provide “strong protections to prevent the diversion of U.S.-origin technology” (see 2505190041).