Trump Jr. Denies World Liberty Exit Amid Sun Lawsuit

World Liberty Financial co-founder Zach Witkoff said the company filed a defamation counterclaim against Justin Sun because they have the receipts. Witkoff told the Consensus conference Thursday afternoon that legal action was a last resort, responding to Sun's lawsuit last month alleging rampant misconduct by World Liberty's leadership.

Donald Trump Jr. dismissed online chatter that he and his brothers had walked away from the crypto project. The rumors took off after Trump, his three sons, and other co-founders were removed from the World Liberty website. Trump Jr. blamed bots and people blindly following what someone feeds them for spreading the false claims.

The dispute centers on World Liberty's allegation that Tron founder Justin Sun secretly shorted the company's native WLFI token to drive down its price. Sun had invested at least ₱4.54 billion ($75 million) in World Liberty tokens after Trump's 2024 election victory, making him one of the project's biggest backers. Sun was facing SEC charges for fraud and market manipulation at the time of his investment, though he later settled without admitting wrongdoing.

World Liberty applied for a national trust bank charter with the Treasury Department in January, a move that drew sharp criticism from Democrats. Senator Elizabeth Warren called the potential approval perhaps the most disgraceful presidential corruption scandal in U.S. history. Trump listed more than ₱3.45 billion ($57 million) in income from World Liberty on his 2025 financial disclosure form. Witkoff said the company is in the final stages of receiving conditional approval for its banking charter, with David Wachsman, the independent crypto PR executive running public relations for the Trump family's crypto firm, moderating the Consensus panel on May 8, 2026.