Former Trump White House attorney Ty Cobb on Tuesday called out President Donald Trump over his $1.2 billion in earnings from cryptocurrency ventures since returning to the White House in 2025, calling it “the greatest onslaught of corruption in the history of mankind.”
Cobb Questions Legality of Trump's Crypto Profits
Cobb appeared on CNN following the release of a financial disclosure document showing Trump earned $594,263,944 from his family’s World Liberty Financial cryptocurrency firm and $635,068,835 from the CIC Digital LLC company that marketed his $TRUMP meme coin.
“I don’t believe so,” Cobb told “OutFront” host Erin Burnett when asked if he thinks it’s legal. He continued, “Certainly, I don’t think it was contemplated by the Founders when they created the emoluments clause. I do think that one of the line items, of course, is the commemorative coins, several hundred million dollars of income related to those coins.”
Violation of the Emoluments Clause
Cobb went on to ponder how this could be “anything other than trading on his image and likeness,” noting this violates the 1787 clause designed to prevent federal officials from being corrupted, influenced or enriched from external entities, and calling crypto a “slimy industry.”
“Certainly the way he’s going around it, where he creates policies that can only enrich himself and his family, is something that I think the average American should be staggered by,” he told Burnett. “But you mentioned the scale, and I think the scale here is just … it’s intentional.”
Scale of Corruption: Billions vs. Millions
Cobb made things even clearer by arguing that even if the son of former President Joe Biden was as corrupt as Republicans claim, Hunter Biden’s allegedly illegal earnings during that administration have nothing on the accumulation of wealth that Trump is openly enjoying.
“And 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,” Cobb said. “Trump is playing with billions; they were playing with millions.”
He added, “So, the grift is on. It’s stunning.”
Additional Examples of Potential Corruption
Trump has openly bragged about having “raised” more than $1.5 billion “in various forms” since the 2024 election. He has also notably accepted a $400 million luxury jet from Qatar, then quietly granted the oil-rich autocracy a defense guarantee from the U.S. government.
His children Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have also benefited from the presidency, securing a financial stake in a mining company that recently landed up to $1.6 billion in financing from the Department of Commerce. Cobb on Tuesday mentioned yet another example.
“I mean, we are seeing the greatest onslaught of corruption in the history of mankind in the last 18 months,” he said. “You know, we have the $1.8 billion that he and Todd Blanche tried to take from the American taxpayers through the phony settlement of contrived controversy.”
The 'Anti-Weaponization Fund' Controversy
Cobb was referring to the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” Trump and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche proposed earlier this year. Trump sued the IRS for $10 billion in January, but dropped the suit in May in exchange for the $1.8 billion fund.
The ex-Trump White House attorney noted Trump planned to use it “to pay off his friends,” as the fund could pay people who claim to have been unfairly targeted by the Department of Justice and even benefit individuals who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots.
