President Donald Trump said he has no knowledge of World Liberty Financial’s dealings with investors linked to the United Arab Emirates, a comment that adds pressure to a legal dispute involving Tron founder Justin Sun. In a CBS 60 Minutes interview aired Sunday, Trump acknowledged he co-owns the crypto venture. Asked why its UAE ties were different from a hypothetical case involving the Biden family, he said he knew nothing about it. The answer was brief. It also left the ownership questions around World Liberty unresolved.
Sun challenges jurisdiction
The comments came as World Liberty argues that a federal court should not hear Sun’s lawsuit over frozen WLFI tokens. Sun says the company cited his UAE citizenship while trying to defeat federal jurisdiction. He alleges World Liberty first disclosed only Florida citizenship, then amended its filing after an August hearing. The revised disclosure listed 22 entities in its ownership chain and citizenship in Florida, Delaware, Puerto Rico and the UAE.
Sun is seeking sanctions against World Liberty and its lawyers. He claims they withheld ownership details until those details could help the company avoid a federal courtroom. In a social media post, Sun said World Liberty was proudly American when it was selling tokens and found its UAE roots only when it needed a way out of federal court. That line is sharp, perhaps too sharp for a filing, but it captures the core of his argument.
Ownership deal draws scrutiny
The dispute follows a reported $500 million deal for a 49% stake in World Liberty by an entity backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser. The reported investment has drawn attention because it touches both politics and crypto. World Liberty has not treated the scrutiny as a serious problem in public. It has called Sun’s case a meritless PR stunt.
Sun sued in April, alleging fraud and the unlawful freezing of his tokens. World Liberty countersued in May. Sun now plans to refile in California state court once the sanctions dispute is resolved. The timing, I think, matters. A jurisdictional fight can look technical, but here it sits at the center of the case. If Sun’s sanctions request succeeds, it could complicate World Liberty’s preferred legal path. If it fails, the fight may move back to state court and drag on.
What comes next
For now, Trump’s comment gives Sun another talking point without settling the facts. World Liberty’s ownership structure, its UAE links and its court strategy remain in dispute. The next steps will likely turn on filings, sanctions arguments and whether the case stays federal. That is a lot of legal weight for a token freeze case, but the political and foreign ownership questions have made it larger than a simple contract fight.
