Ranking Member Raskin’s Statement After U.S. Patent Office Abandons Unlawful Board of Peace Trademarks Following Pressure By Judiciary Democrats
Washington, D.C. (July 6, 2026)—Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, issued the following statement after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) abandoned its unprecedented trademark applications for the “Board of Peace,” a Trump-led slush fund that has been the subject of sustained oversight by Judiciary Committee Democrats:
“The USPTO’s decision to abandon its disturbing trademark applications for the ‘Board of Peace’ is a welcome and necessary course correction. From the start, the USPTO’s Director’s baffling and unprecedented decision to apply for trademarks for President Trump raised serious concerns about its legality given that the Lanham Act forbids applications on behalf of another person unless you are their lawyer, which the Director specifically denied. House Judiciary Committee Democrats have been aggressively investigating whether the USPTO is being manipulated and misused to conceal the true owner of what appears to be an unregulated global slush fund bankrolled by both foreign governments and U.S. taxpayers but effectively controlled by President Trump, the Board’s self-appointed ‘Chairman for Life.’
“I pressed Director Squires repeatedly—in letters and under oath before the Judiciary Committee—to explain why the USPTO was acting as an extralegal custodian for Trump’s Board of Peace, stepping in as the Board’s agent to apply for a trademark on the Board’s behalf. No explanation ever came. USPTO’s role is to issue legitimate trademarks—not to apply for them on behalf of shadowy global slush funds. This inevitable retreat confirms what was clear all along: USPTO had no legal basis to stand in as a straw trademark holder for this shady scheme.
“But America’s core questions about this mysterious venture remain unanswered. Billions of dollars have flowed or been pledged from foreign governments into this opaque entity, alongside at least $1.25 billion in taxpayer funds—yet the American people still have no idea what this entity actually is, who controls it, or under what legal authority it operates.
“So who is ultimately in control of this foreign-funded operation? Who is controlling its accounts at J.P. Morgan? What legal structure—if any—governs it? Is it a for-profit enterprise, a not-for-profit enterprise or something else? What are its mechanisms of accountability and transparency? And was the USPTO enlisted to help shield the true ownership and financial architecture of what looks like a massive, unaccountable pool of foreign and domestic funds flowing outside any meaningful oversight?
“Our oversight will continue until we get full and complete answers about what may be a glaring misuse of federal authority to facilitate and insulate another corrupt and foreign-backed Trump self-enrichment scheme.”