Warren, Dean, Democrats Urge Commerce Department Watchdog to Investigate Lutnick Family’s Conflicts of Interest, Impact on AI Data Center Decisions
Commerce Secretary Lutnick may be boosting AI data center projects that could enrich his immediate family
“There is a substantial public interest in ensuring that Secretary Lutnick is not violating federal ethics law to propel data centers that will be profitable for his family while making life more expensive for working Americans.”
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) led members of Congress in pressing U.S. Department of Commerce Acting Inspector General Duane Townsend to open an investigation into Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and his family’s apparent conflicts of interest involving artificial intelligence (AI) data centers.
“Because the billionaire Lutnick family has significant financial investments in data centers—and the electricity needs of those data centers drive up utility bills for families across the country—there is a substantial public interest in ensuring that Secretary Lutnick is not violating federal ethics law to propel data centers that will be profitable for his family while making life more expensive for working Americans,” wrote the lawmakers.
The following members also signed on: Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Representatives Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Glenn Ivey (D-Md.), Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Nikema Williams (D-Ga.), Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.), Morgan McGarvey (D-Ky.), Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.), André Carson (D-Ind.), Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.), Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.), Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), Julia Brownley (D-Calif.), Sean Casten (D-Ill.), and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.).
For decades, Secretary Lutnick owned and led the financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald. After signing an ethics agreement requiring that he divest his stake in Cantor and months after his deadline for divesting, he transferred much of his stake to his adult sons. They now lead Cantor and have a controlling ownership stake in it, creating an extraordinary situation in which the office of the Commerce Secretary intersects significantly with the financial interests of the Secretary’s own family.
Cantor is heavily invested in the AI data center industry, with “unprecedented data center expansion” reportedly helping fuel the company’s most profitable year on record. Recent reports reveal that, as head of the Commerce Department, Secretary Lutnick helped boost AI data centers in ways that may enrich his own family. In addition to public appearances promoting projects — including at least one his family’s company has worked on — Lutnick has also reportedly pressured foreign governments to invest in the U.S. data center industry, and money from those deals could flow to a Lutnick-linked firm.
“While the rapid growth of data centers is proving to be lucrative for the Lutnick family, it is also making it harder for American families to pay their monthly utility bills,” wrote the lawmakers.
Data centers are pushing energy costs up to record highs across the country, pulling American households into paying the price. When utility companies spend billions on new electricity infrastructure to support data centers, they may charge more to local households connected to the grid to offset that cost. In some communities, Americans’ bills have skyrocketed by more than 250 percent over just the past five years.
“In short, we are concerned that Secretary Lutnick’s official actions to boost AI data centers could be influenced by his conflicts of interest — and that these actions come at the expense of everyday Americans who are forced to bear the higher energy costs of the data centers that are inflating the Lutnick family’s wealth,” wrote the lawmakers.
Senator Warren, Representative Dean, and the other members pressed the Acting Inspector General to carefully review the ethics concerns surrounding Secretary Lutnick and his family, including whether Secretary Lutnick has violated his obligations as a public official.
Senator Warren has long raised concerns about Secretary Lutnick’s apparent ethics issues:
- In August, Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote to Brandon Lutnick, Chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., about possible conflicts of interest and insider trading stemming from the bets that his firm is reportedly making on the legality of the Trump administration’s sweeping tariffs.
- In March, Senator Warren and Representative Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) sent a letter to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics demanding an investigation into Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick for potentially violating federal ethics laws.
- In January, ahead of his nomination hearing, Sen. Warren pressed Howard Lutnick on his serious financial conflicts and personal and professional ties to the scandal-ridden cryptocurrency Tether.
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