Senators: “These are grave mistakes that will support sanctions evasion, drug trafficking, scams, and child sexual exploitation.”
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, along with U.S. Senators Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking Committee led six Senators in urging Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to reverse the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) recent decisions to effectively terminate the Department’s cryptocurrency investigations and prosecutions. The memo, sent to staff earlier this week, also stated that DOJ will disband its National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), which was established to investigate and prosecute criminal misuse of cryptocurrencies and digital assets. In their letter, the Senators also raise concerns about the potential connections between DOJ’s actions and the cryptocurrency ventures of President Trump and his family.
“We write in response to your April 7, 2025 memo announcing your decision to give a free pass to cryptocurrency money launderers and to disband the DOJ’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (“NCET”),” the Senators wrote. “These are grave mistakes that will support sanctions evasion, drug trafficking, scams, and child sexual exploitation.”
Specifically, the DOJ memo announced that the Department would no longer be enforcing a number of federal laws against entities that handle digital assets, including mixing and tumbling services. Mixers are often used to launder stolen cryptocurrency and used by drug traffickers, those who trade child sexual abuse material, and even North Korea, which uses mixers to evade sanctions and fund weapons of mass destruction.
“It makes no sense for DOJ to announce a hands-off approach to tools that are being used to support such terrible crimes,” wrote the lawmakers.
“Drug traffickers, terrorists, fraudsters, and adversaries will exploit this vulnerability on a large scale,” the Senators continued. “Further increasing the risks posed by bad actors is your decision to disband NCET, which has coordinated a Department-wide effort to prosecute illicit activity involving cryptocurrency.”
Since its creation in 2021, NCET has worked with U.S. Attorneys’ offices to prosecute illicit activity involving cryptocurrency, including prosecuting cases involving hundreds of millions worth of digital assets.Despite this proven record of success, Blanche’s memo stated that the disbandment of NCET will allow the DOJ to “focus on other priorities, such as immigration and procurement frauds.”
The Senators also warned about the proliferation of cryptocurrency scams and fraud. In 2023 alone, the Federal Bureau of Investigation estimated that $5.6 billion were lost to cryptocurrency fraud—an increase of 45 percent from 2022.
“You claim in your memo that DOJ will continue to prosecute those who use cryptocurrencies to perpetrate crimes. But allowing the entities that enable these crimes—such as cryptocurrency kiosk operators—to operate outside the federal regulatory framework without fear of prosecution will only result in more Americans being exploited,” wrote the Senators.
“Your decisions give rise to concerns that President Trump’s interest in selling his cryptocurrency may be the reason for easing law enforcement scrutiny,” the Senators concluded. “We urge you to reconsider these decisions.”
In addition to Senators Hirono, Warren, and Durbin, this letter was also signed by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Chris Coons (D-DE), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT).
The full text of the letter is available here and below.
Dear Deputy Attorney General Blanche:
We write in response to your April 7, 2025 memo announcing your decision to give a free pass to cryptocurrency money launderers and to disband the Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (“NCET”). These are grave mistakes that will support sanctions evasion, drug trafficking, scams, and child sexual exploitation.
Your memo announces that pursuant to Executive Order 14178, DOJ will generally “no longer target . . . virtual currency exchanges [and] mixing and tumbling services . . . for the acts of their end users or unwitting violations of regulations.” As you know, a cryptocurrency mixer (or tumbler) is a service that blends the cryptocurrencies of many users together to obfuscate the origins and owners of the funds. “[M]ixers are . . . ‘go-to tools for cybercriminals’ seeking to launder stolen cryptocurrency.” Nearly a quarter of the funds sent to mixers in 2022 were tied to money laundering efforts.” Mixers are a favorite tool of North Korea—which uses them to launder the illicit proceeds of its state-sponsored cybercrime and then uses the proceeds to fund its weapons programs—and of sanctioned Russian oligarchs, who already benefit from DOJ disbanding TaskForce KleptoCapture. Mixers are also a favorite tool of drug traffickers and those who trade child sexual abuse material. It makes no sense for DOJ to announce a hands-off approach to tools that are being used to support such terrible crimes.
Similarly nonsensical is your announcement that DOJ will no longer prosecute a host of crimes involving digital assets, including violations of the Bank Secrecy Act. Congress imposed anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) obligations on a wide range of domestic and foreign entities to combat fraud, drug trafficking, and terrorism, among other crimes. By abdicating DOJ’s responsibility to enforce federal criminal law when violations involve digital assets, you are suggesting that virtual currency exchanges, mixers, and other entities dealing in digital assets need not fulfill their AML/CFT obligations, creating a systemic vulnerability in the digital assets sector. Drug traffickers, terrorists, fraudsters, and adversaries will exploit this vulnerability on a large scale.
Cryptocurrency-related fraud has exploded in recent years. The Federal Bureau of Investigation estimated losses associated with cryptocurrency fraud at $5.6 billion in 2023 alone—an increase of 45 percent from 2022. You claim in your memo that DOJ will continue to prosecute those who use cryptocurrencies to perpetrate crimes. But allowing the entities that enable these crimes—such as cryptocurrency kiosk operators—to operate outside the federal regulatory framework without fear of prosecution will only result in more Americans being exploited.
Further increasing the risks posed by bad actors is your decision to disband NCET, which has coordinated a Department-wide effort to prosecute illicit activity involving cryptocurrency. DOJ formed NCET in 2021 “to tackle complex investigations and prosecutions of criminal misuses of cryptocurrency, particularly crimes committed by virtual currency exchanges, mixing and tumbling services, and money laundering infrastructure actors.” NCET combined the expertise and resources of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery and Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Sections with Assistant U.S. Attorneys from around the country. Since its formation, NCET has worked with U.S. Attorneys’ offices to:
Further, NCET operates as a critical resource for state and local law enforcement who often lack the technical knowledge and skill to investigate cryptocurrency related crimes. Disbanding NCET will make the work of these state and local law enforcement agents that much harder.
Why would you dismantle a team that is such an important player in fighting cryptocurrency-based crime? Your decisions give rise to concerns that President Trump’s interest in selling his cryptocurrency may be the reason for easing law enforcement scrutiny.
We urge you to reconsider these decisions. In addition, we request a staff-level briefing no later than May 1, 2025, providing detailed information on the rationale behind these decisions and their anticipated impacts on the Department’s ability to enforce the law and protect Americans from cryptocurrency-based crimes.
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