Democratic US senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal have requested an investigation into a gift from the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) to US President Donald Trump.
The gift was an 18-carat gold ring set with 321 diamonds, 56 sapphires, 13 emeralds and six rubies, and is worth around €25,000, according to the Associated Press. Shortly after Trump received it, the diamond sector in Antwerp was granted an exemption from import tariffs to the US.
Warren and Blumenthal have now addressed a letter to the head of AWDC, asking for an explanation of what they call "cartoonish corruption".
AWDC President Isidore Mörsel handed the ring to US Ambassador to Belgium Bill White during the festivities for the 250th anniversary of the United States in Cinquantenaire Park. The ring symbolised the historic diamond trade between the US and Antwerp, Mörsel said.
The White House has denied any form of corruption, claiming that the exemption was part of an agreement with the EU. The Belgian diamond industry said that the decision was purely economic, as there are no diamond production or international trading hubs in the US to protect with tariffs.
Warren and Blumenthal rejected that explanation and have sent a letter to AWDC and Mörsel, questioning who made the decision on the gift and who paid for the ring.
Warren and Blumenthal said this case points to a wider pattern of corruption. They noted that this was the fourth case this year in which a sector was granted a tariff exemption after offering Trump a personal gift.
