Former Hogan Lovells partner turned White House special counsel (in the Trump I regime) Ty Cobb is back on the cable news circuit to make some biting comments about his former boss. Cobb left the hallowed halls of Biglaw to join the first Trump administration, but he quickly left. Since then, he and his signature mustache have taken to the airwaves with a folksy way of cutting through the right-wing BS — calling Trump “insane,” warning there are no “guardrails” left around him, and diagnosing “palpable” cognitive decline with increasing urgency. His latest appearance, on CNN’s OutFront with Erin Burnett, may be his most pointed yet.
The occasion was Tuesday’s release of Trump’s annual financial disclosure, a 927-page document filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. It revealed that Trump earned over $500 million from World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture co-founded with his sons Donald Jr. and Eric that sells governance tokens and a USD1 stablecoin, plus more than $635 million in royalties from CIC Digital LLC connected to his $TRUMP meme coin, a product he launched three days before his second inauguration while billing himself the “crypto president.” The combined crypto haul tops $1 billion for 2025 alone. (The coins, it bears noting, have cratered in value since they were sold, leaving buyers holding the bag while the president pocketed the proceeds.)
Burnett asked Cobb the obvious question: is any of this legal?
“I don’t believe so,” Cobb replied. “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.” He went on: “How can that be anything other than trading on his image and likeness” in violation of that 1787 clause? The emoluments clause is designed to prevent federal officials from being corrupted, influenced, or enriched by external entities, a concern the Founders took seriously enough to put directly in the Constitution, even if Trump has long maintained the word itself is obscure.
Cobb called crypto “a slimy industry” and said Trump’s approach — “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 added, “You mentioned the scale, and I think the scale here is just … it’s intentional. There’s no question.”
Then came the line that will stick. “I mean, we are seeing the greatest onslaught of corruption in the history of mankind in the last 18 months,” Cobb said. He invoked the $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” that Trump and Todd Blanche tried to extract from the Treasury (something we’ve covered extensively around here) as Exhibit A. And he offered a pointed contrast with the corruption allegations Republicans spent years lobbing at Hunter Biden, “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. Trump is playing with billions; they were playing with millions.”
Cobb’s conclusion, “So, the grift is on. It’s stunning.”
Cobb has been calling out the “evil” president and the “neutered” Congress for a while now. The former Biglaw partner turned White House attorney turned media critic continues to make increasingly dire pronouncements, and as ever, the people with actual authority to do something about it are nowhere to be found.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Bluesky @Kathryn1
The post Former Biglaw Partner Says Trump’s Billion-Dollar Crypto Haul Is ‘The Greatest Onslaught Of Corruption In The History Of Mankind’ appeared first on Above the Law.
Former Hogan Lovells partner turned White House special counsel (in the Trump I regime) Ty Cobb is back on the cable news circuit to make some biting comments about his former boss. Cobb left the hallowed halls of Biglaw to join the first Trump administration, but he quickly left. Since then, he and his signature mustache have taken to the airwaves with a folksy way of cutting through the right-wing BS — calling Trump “insane,” warning there are no “guardrails” left around him, and diagnosing “palpable” cognitive decline with increasing urgency. His latest appearance, on CNN’s OutFront with Erin Burnett, may be his most pointed yet.
The occasion was Tuesday’s release of Trump’s annual financial disclosure, a 927-page document filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. It revealed that Trump earned over $500 million from World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture co-founded with his sons Donald Jr. and Eric that sells governance tokens and a USD1 stablecoin, plus more than $635 million in royalties from CIC Digital LLC connected to his $TRUMP meme coin, a product he launched three days before his second inauguration while billing himself the “crypto president.” The combined crypto haul tops $1 billion for 2025 alone. (The coins, it bears noting, have cratered in value since they were sold, leaving buyers holding the bag while the president pocketed the proceeds.)
Burnett asked Cobb the obvious question: is any of this legal?
“I don’t believe so,” Cobb replied. “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.” He went on: “How can that be anything other than trading on his image and likeness” in violation of that 1787 clause? The emoluments clause is designed to prevent federal officials from being corrupted, influenced, or enriched by external entities, a concern the Founders took seriously enough to put directly in the Constitution, even if Trump has long maintained the word itself is obscure.
Cobb called crypto “a slimy industry” and said Trump’s approach — “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 added, “You mentioned the scale, and I think the scale here is just … it’s intentional. There’s no question.”
Then came the line that will stick. “I mean, we are seeing the greatest onslaught of corruption in the history of mankind in the last 18 months,” Cobb said. He invoked the $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” that Trump and Todd Blanche tried to extract from the Treasury (something we’ve covered extensively around here) as Exhibit A. And he offered a pointed contrast with the corruption allegations Republicans spent years lobbing at Hunter Biden, “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. Trump is playing with billions; they were playing with millions.”
Cobb’s conclusion, “So, the grift is on. It’s stunning.”
Cobb has been calling out the “evil” president and the “neutered” Congress for a while now. The former Biglaw partner turned White House attorney turned media critic continues to make increasingly dire pronouncements, and as ever, the people with actual authority to do something about it are nowhere to be found.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Bluesky @Kathryn1
The post Former Biglaw Partner Says Trump’s Billion-Dollar Crypto Haul Is ‘The Greatest Onslaught Of Corruption In The History Of Mankind’ appeared first on Above the Law.
