In response to Donald Trump picking Paul Atkins as the SEC Commissioner, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: 

“Donald Trump chose Project 2025 contributor Paul Atkins for his track record of siding with Wall Street over Main Street – making him the perfect ally for Trump’s plans to rig the economy for the ultra-rich. Atkins has repeatedly sidestepped the law to benefit special interests, and has proven he’ll gladly sell out the American people to the highest bidder at Trump’s command.” 

NEW: Donald Trump tapped Paul Atkins to lead the Securities & Exchange Commission, coming through on his promise to deliver for big Wall Street donors.

Libbey Dean, NewsNation: “Trump has nominated Paul Atkins for SEC Chairman.”

WSJ: “The crypto industry’s courting of Trump was on full display at a June fundraising dinner in San Francisco. In attendance were representatives from some of crypto’s largest U.S. businesses such as the exchange Coinbase and the payments platform Ripple, as well as the Winklevoss twins, whom Trump jokingly referred to as ‘supermodels.’ …

“The talk quickly turned to a shared dislike of Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, whose aggressive enforcement agenda has made him something of a boogeyman for crypto companies. …

“Trump’s pledge to fire Gensler on his first day in office was met with such thunderous applause and loud cheers from the audience at the bitcoin conference that he repeated the promise.” 

Politico: “Trump’s choice for the SEC is expected to pursue a lighter-touch approach to overseeing financial firms and the markets.”

CNBC: “Trump PAC has raised about $7.5 million in crypto donations since early June” 

Fast Company: “[Atkins] set up his own consultancy, Patomak Global Partners, which worked in the digital finance sector with clients. And since 2017, Atkins was cochair of the Token Alliance, an industry-led initiative overseen by the Chamber of Digital Commerce, which represents the crypto sector’s interests.”

Inc: “Trump Nominates Crypto Fan Paul Atkins to Run the SEC” 

“Atkins is the co-chair of a crypto industry advocacy group.” 

Atkins has a long history of helping companies sidestep the law and influence regulators while ignoring conflicts of interest.  

WSJ:  “How Trump’s Regulation Skeptic Helps Wall Street Navigate the Rules” 

“Paul Atkins is Wall Street’s regulation whisperer.

“The man tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to oversee his early financial deregulation strategy has spent the past seven years counseling clients how to influence regulators—sometimes charging $1,200 per hour for the advice, according to people familiar with the matter. …

“Since then, he has prepared private-equity firms for compliance exams, devised strategies for mutual funds to resist government curbs on risk-taking, and helped Chinese accounting firms avert a ban on doing business in the U.S., according to the people familiar with the matter. Patomak’s other clients have included the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Fidelity Investments, the people said. …

“In other cases, Patomak has aided businesses feuding with the government. In 2013, Mr. Atkins testified in Washington as an expert witness for the Chinese affiliates of the Big Four accounting firms, which had refused to cooperate with a series of SEC accounting-fraud probes. (The firms argued that Chinese law prevented them from sharing documents the SEC sought.) Mr. Atkins tried to convince an SEC administrative judge that he shouldn’t permanently ban the firms from auditing companies listed on U.S. exchanges, as the SEC had proposed.” 

ProPublica: “Indeed, the independent monitor of Deutsche’s derivatives reporting, Paul Atkins from Patomak Partners, has his own conflict of interest. Atkins served on Trump’s transition team and played a role in appointing federal financial regulators. He is now monitoring whether Trump’s business partner complies with the terms of a settlement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on derivatives reporting.”

REMINDER: Trump has a long history of selling out the American people to the highest bidder. 

Washington Post: “Trump makes sweeping promises to donors on audacious fundraising tour”

“Trump sometimes makes requests higher than his team expects to receive, sometimes surprising his own advisers because he is asking for so much money. By frequently tying the fundraising requests within seconds of promises of tax cuts, oil project infrastructure approvals and other favorable policies and asking for sums more than his campaign and the GOP can legally accept from an individual, Trump is also testing the boundaries of federal campaign finance laws, according to legal experts.”

Rolling Stone: “As Trump Promises Donors Big Policy Favors, Cash Pours In”

“In April, Donald Trump asked oil and gas executives to donate $1 billion to help his 2024 presidential campaign, according to The Washington Post, which reported that he had promised the donors a host of policy favors, including a rollback of President Joe Biden’s environmental regulations and faster, painless corporate mergers.

“Now, fossil fuel cash is pouring in: Last month, Energy Transfer CEO Kelcy Warren hosted a Houston-area fundraiser for Trump — and he also donated $5 million to the primary pro-Trump super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc. The oil and gas firm Continental Resources, Inc. donated $1 million to MAGA Inc. in late April.”