The Coin Center responds to Sean Warren’s concerns about hiring former officials
United States Senator Elizabeth Warren responded to a letter received by the Coin Center criticizing the hiring practices of former government officials. “We respectfully decline to answer your questions further,” said Coin Center Director Jeremy Brito.
Warren sent letters to Coinbase, after Blockchain Association and Coin Center Politico ran an article in December that the kriptovalyutnyh exchange was hiring a “small army” of former government and law enforcement officials to represent its own interests. Warren described the experience of hiring former officials as “interesting” and said those officials “will work on your behalf to disrupt bipartisan efforts in Congress and the Biden administration to address the role of cryptocurrency in funding Hamas and other terrorist organizations.”
Warren acknowledged that the employment practices she spoke of were perfectly legal:
“[Such hiring] It also shows significant gaps in the country's ethics laws. These loopholes allow former government officials — including former national security officials — to leave their positions in public trusts and immediately donate money and work as lobbyists or advisers to private-sector industries with vested interests in federal policy.
When Brito received the letter, he called it a “bullying ad.” Like Coinbase and the Blockchain Association, which responded earlier, CoinCenter declined to answer Warren's questions about the organization's employment policies.
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In his letter, Brito referred to the constitutional rights of a crypto industry advocacy group. “We are under no obligation to answer these questions beyond our statutory disclosures,” Brito wrote.
“Our constitutional republic is based on our collective adherence to the rule of law, but on long-standing norms of decency, respectful debate and consensus.”
The crypto industry criticized Warren and co-sponsor of the Digital Assets Anti-Money Laundering Act, Sen. Roger Marshall, for asking the American Bankers Association lobby group to withdraw the act. That law is one of two bipartisan bills that Warren says is eroding her mailing address.
We sent a letter in response to Sen. Warren's request that the Coin Center disclose if we hire former federal officials to “undermine bipartisan efforts in Congress” pic.twitter.com/H0BY6cJkQL
— Jerry Brito (@jerrybrito) January 15, 2024
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