The King

Chapter 4 of The Briefing: Tom Emmer (R-MN-06), Part One — The Cost.

When the Securities and Exchange Commission took enforcement action against the cryptocurrency industry, Tom Emmer responded — with legislation, letters, or cosponsorships, usually within weeks.

The Sixth District of Minnesota, which Emmer represents, has no significant cryptocurrency employers. Not a single bill for the district’s top employment sectors has advanced past committee.

Seven years. Five enforcement actions against the industry. Six responses — bills, letters, cosponsorships, and an appropriations rider. Every one in the same direction. Two court rulings that supported his position. No response to either.

During those seven years, the district’s top employment sectors — manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture, construction — received 22 bills sponsored by their representative. None advanced past committee. The cryptocurrency industry, which employs no one in the district, received 13 more, plus 11 he cosponsored.

His stated justification: the SEC under Chair Gary Gensler was “regulation by enforcement” — applying securities law to digital assets without clear legislative authority, stifling innovation, creating uncertainty. These are real arguments. Federal courts partially agreed — SEC v. Ripple Labs partially vindicated his position on digital asset classification; the D.C. Circuit ruled against the SEC in Grayscale v. SEC.

The question is not whether the policy position had merit. The question is why the responses tracked enforcement actions rather than court rulings. Neither Ripple nor Grayscale triggered new legislation. The SEC’s lawsuits against Coinbase and Binance — against companies whose employees and PACs funded his campaigns — triggered responses within days.

In November 2023, Binance pled guilty to federal charges — $4.3 billion in fines for willful violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, money laundering, and sanctions violations. The SEC had been investigating Binance. Emmer had been attacking the SEC for investigating Binance.

The investigation proved correct — the Department of Justice, not the SEC, ultimately secured the guilty plea. Whether his legislation, if enacted, would have constrained the enforcement that caught those violations is a question the bill’s defeat left unanswered. The evidence does not establish that he knew of Binance’s crimes when he criticized the SEC.

On June 6, 2023, the SEC sued Coinbase. Six days later, Emmer cosponsored legislation to restructure the agency’s authority. Coinbase employees and PACs have contributed $64,900 to his campaigns — his largest cryptocurrency-linked donor.

The Securities Clarity Act — introduced in the 116th Congress, reintroduced in the 118th, folded into the CLARITY Act in the 119th — reclassifies cryptocurrency tokens so they are not considered securities. The defendants whose cases the bill would have affected are among the donors who funded his campaigns.

The Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act has been introduced in five consecutive Congresses. It has died in four. He introduces it again each session. The donors keep paying. The bill keeps dying.

One reading of the pattern: the bill’s value to the donor is not its passage. Its value is its introduction. As long as he keeps introducing it, the SEC knows what the third-ranking Republican in the House thinks about their enforcement priorities.

In August 2020, he told cryptocurrency executives at a virtual town hall:

“Do you know how powerful this is for some elected officials to look over and say, ‘What’s Emmer doing, he’s getting what? He’s getting, oh my goodness, campaign contributions? I need to learn more about what’s going on with cryptocurrencies.’” — Congressman Tom Emmer, virtual town hall with cryptocurrency executives, August 2020

In March 2022, Emmer led eight House members in a letter to SEC Chair Gary Gensler calling the agency’s inquiries “overburdensome” and “stifling innovation.” The letter addressed the industry broadly. Eight months later, FTX collapsed. Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud. Billions of dollars belonging to ordinary people who trusted the platform had been stolen.

He called Bankman-Fried “fraudulent,” then accused Gensler of insufficient oversight. In March, the SEC had been too aggressive. By December, not aggressive enough. Same man, same year, same regulator.

In November 2023, he passed an appropriations amendment prohibiting the SEC from using taxpayer funds for cryptocurrency enforcement until Congress granted clear regulatory jurisdiction. No standalone bill. No hearings. A rider attached to the budget that restricted the SEC from spending funds on crypto enforcement — including active investigations of companies whose employees had donated to his campaigns.

More than $1 million in cryptocurrency industry money has flowed through his campaign, his joint fundraising committees, and his leadership PAC. Top cryptocurrency industry donors — through their PACs and employees — include Coinbase ($64,900), Andreessen Horowitz ($58,200), Paradigm ($24,800), and Winklevoss Capital ($23,500).

An industry with no documented employer presence in the district received 24 bills introduced or cosponsored benefiting the industry and the consistent protection of the third-ranking Republican in the House.

Manufacturing — the district’s largest employment sector — received zero enacted legislation.

He owns no cryptocurrency.

Sources

SEC filings and court documents (Telegram, Ripple Labs, Grayscale, BlockFi, Kraken, Coinbase, Binance, FTX); FEC Schedule A (C00545749, cryptocurrency-linked donors); Congress.gov (Securities Clarity Act, Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, CLARITY Act); DOJ press release, Binance guilty plea, November 21, 2023; Washington Post, December 8, 2022 (virtual town hall); Census County Business Patterns 2022; Financial disclosure, 2024.