Senator Elizabeth Warren and a group of Democratic congresspeople have sent a letter to David Sacks, the White House “crypto czar,” questioning whether he has exceeded the time limit for his temporary role as a special advisor.
The Office of Government Ethics limits Special Government Employees to 130 days of service. While Sacks has not publicly disclosed the number of days he has worked, congresspeople believe he has exceeded this limit if he has been performing duties consecutively since the start of the Trump administration.
Sacks’s Private and Public Services Under Scrutiny
Today, eight congresspeople sent a joint letter to David Sacks, Trump’s “Crypto and AI Czar,” asking him to clarify how many days he has worked for the administration as a special advisor. Sponsored
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Sacks currently works for the White House as a Special Government Employee (SGE), which permits him to perform temporary government duties.
The Democratic lawmakers particularly stressed the ethical considerations Sacks’s potential violation of his SGE status would raise. Their concern stemmed from his position as a general partner at the venture capital firm Craft Ventures, and his broader connections to Silicon Valley.
“When issuing your ethics waiver, the White House noted that the careful balance in conflict-of-interest rules for SGEs was reached with the understanding that they would only serve the public ‘on a temporary basis.’ For you in particular, compliance with the SGE time limit is critical, given the scale of your conflicts of interest,” the letter read.
David Sacks is serving as the White House AI and Crypto Czar meanwhile continuing to work at a venture capital firm that has a stake in several crypto companies.He’s not taking a gov’t salary, which allows him to get around some ethics rules. Learn more: Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) July 19, 2025
The letter also insinuated that Sacks’s private salary from Craft Ventures while working as an SGE for the government is permissible only because of his temporary status. If Sacks has exceeded the 130-day limit for SGEs, his continued receipt of a private salary would become an ethical violation.
Beyond the 130-Day Mark?
The letter, which was signed by Democratic members of Congress, including Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen, Richard Blumenthal, Jeffrey Merkley, Melanie Stansbury, Betty McCollum, Rashida Tlaib, and Bernie Sanders, concluded by asking Sacks for a full accounting of the time he had served under his SGE status.
The lawmakers clarified that the information was not publicly available but that, according to their calculations, today marked Sacks’s 167th day as a White House special advisor.
“You were appointed in December 2024 and began work for President Trump on or around January 20, 2025. If you have worked every calendar day since the presidential inauguration, your 130th day of work in this role was May 29, 2025, and if you have worked every business day, your 130th day was July 25, 2025,” the letter read.
The letter emphasized that Sacks’s ability to maintain his private-sector ties while serving in government depends on his adherence to his temporary status. This provision would otherwise no longer apply if he exceeded the time limit for his role.
