Ranking Member Raskin Demands Records From Secretary Lutnick, Son Over Appearance of Tariff Profiteering

Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, is demanding answers from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and his son, Brandon Lutnick, the Chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald, regarding reports that the firm spent millions of dollars buying the rights to potential tariff refunds. The strategy was effectively to bet that the courts would reject the Trump Administration’s unlawful “Liberation Day” tariffs that Secretary Lutnick had championed— raising an appearance of impropriety and serious questions about whether the firm may have benefited from nonpublic insight into the tariffs’ legal vulnerabilities and the Administration’s litigation strategy.

“The American people have been profoundly harmed by Donald Trump’s chaotic and unconstitutional tariffs. The federal government has collected an estimated $175 billion from these unlawful taxes on American businesses, families, and workers, who have shouldered 90% of the cost of this folly.  The American people deserve to know whether Administration insiders and their closest family members deliberately positioned themselves to profit from these blatantly illegal tariffs while everyone else paid the price,” Ranking Member Raskin wrote. 

Internal documents reviewed by Wired reveal that Cantor Fitzgerald apparently engaged in a scheme to pay 20 to 30 cents on the dollar for tariff refunds, betting that the courts would reverse the Administration’s tariff policy and securing a staggering three-to-five-fold return on their investment. The Supreme Court’s decision striking down Trump’s sweeping tariffs has triggered those potentially massive refunds, with the federal government having collected an estimated $175 billion in tariffs—costs borne overwhelmingly by American consumers and small businesses.

This move raises serious questions about whether Cantor Fitzgerald benefited from material nonpublic information regarding the tariffs’ legal vulnerability, the Administration’s litigation strategy, or the likelihood they would be invalidated. Cantor Fitzgerald has since denied Wired’s reporting, but grave concerns remain over the appearance of impropriety involving the Lutnick family and the Trump Administration. In a particularly damning example, a spokesperson told Newsweek that the firm “has never executed any transactions or taken risk on the legality of tariffs” and called “[a]ny report suggesting otherwise . . . completely false,” yet internal documents suggested the firm had “already put a trade through” worth $10 million in tariff refunds.                 

Ranking Member Raskin is demanding records related to Cantor Fitzgerald’s tariff-refund transactions, communications with Secretary Lutnick or White House officials, internal legal analyses of the tariffs’ legality, and any ethics or compliance reviews addressing potential conflicts of interest, by no later than March 9, 2026. 

Click here to read the letter.