Rep. Jesus Garcia Booted from House Committee Following Alleged FTX Ties

Democrat representative Jesus “Chuy” Garcia has been removed from the House Financial Services Committee following the overtaking of the House of Representatives by republicans and the implementation of Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker.

Jesus Garcia Says “Bye” to Committee Position

The decision to have Garcia removed appears to stem largely from allegations that he accepted money and donations from Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced crypto executive in charge of the now defunct FTX crypto exchange. Sam Bankman-Fried donated a lot of money to the political campaigns of several democrat congressmen and women and other political figures during the 2020 and 2022 elections.

Garcia says he has not been questioned by the federal government regarding his receiving of funds from Sam Bankman-Fried. He has also not implied if he’s given the money back or if he has intentions of giving the money back. In any case, republicans are now largely booting democrat representatives from House committees like they did with California representative Adam Schiff and Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar.

In addition, Garcia appears to have served on the committee in the past through what’s known as a “waiver” status. This occurs when a representative stays on a committee but is not active, and thus doesn’t gain seniority or rapport. The republican-led Congress says it won’t allow these waiver statuses to continue, and everyone who wants to remain on their respective committees must do so in an active manner. In other words, they must legitimately participate in decision-making or vacate their positions.

A spokesperson for Garcia’s office stated:

Democratic leadership made it clear that the republicans would not allow waivers for financial services again.

Garcia has now launched a campaign that will see him running for the role of Chicago’s mayor, a position already held by Beetlejuice lookalike Lori Lightfoot. While both are democrats, Lightfoot has been attacking Garcia in a string of political ads for his alleged ties to SBF, claiming in a recent commercial that he “cozies up to crypto crooks.”

FTX Will Probably Always Be Remembered

It’s likely anyone who shared a relationship with SBF is going to be licking their wounds for some time. FTX is going to go down as one of the biggest blunders of the crypto space. Once considered the golden child of the digital currency industry, the exchange rose to prominence after only three years and became one of the biggest crypto trading platforms in the world.

Its founder and chief executive SBF was lauded as a genius by many, and his net worth was in the billions prior to November, which is when the trading company fell apart and initially entered the first stages of its ongoing bankruptcy proceedings. As it stands, Sam Bankman-Fried is now stuck at his parents’ house and awaiting trial for fraud in Northern California.

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