Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal is raising concerns over the brief tenure of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s former enforcement director, citing reports that she clashed with agency leadership over its handling of cases  — including dismissing its claims against Tron founder Justin Sun.

In a letter on Monday sent to the SEC's Chair Paul Atkins, Blumenthal asked for more information about former SEC Enforcement Director Margaret Ryan's departure. Ryan began the job in September 2025 and left in March of this year.

Last week, Reuters reported Ryan wanted to delve more intensely into going after fraud charges that involved those in President Donald Trump's inner circle, but that Atkins and other top Republicans at the commission were opposed to it, citing two people familiar.

"Ms. Ryan’s abrupt departure from the agency raises questions in light of her short tenure and reports that senior leadership intervened to prohibit the Division of Enforcement from pursuing cases against certain cryptocurrency companies," Blumenthal said in the letter.

Tensions escalated when it came to Sun's case, Reuters reported. Under the Biden administration, the SEC charged Sun and his three related companies with unregistered securities sales of TRX and BTT tokens. Sun was also accused of fraudulent manipulation of the TRX price via wash trading and paying celebrities, including actress Lindsay Lohan and media personality Jake Paul, to promote the tokens without disclosure.

Under the Trump administration, the agency has dropped several cases against major crypto firms, including Coinbase and Kraken for failing to register properly. In May, the SEC dismissed charges against Binance after the agency accused it of misrepresenting trading controls.

In March, the SEC dismissed charges against Sun, the Tron Foundation, and BitTorrent (now Rainberry) and ordered the latter to pay a $10 million civil penalty to the agency. Sun has been a vocal supporter of Trump and has made huge investments in Trump-family-backed crypto ventures, including World Liberty Financial and Trump's memecoin $TRUMP. World Liberty Financial has also bought millions of dollars' worth of Tron and other tokens.

"This is a clear example of how President Trump’s blatant crypto corruption creates back doors for his family’s business partners, creating a pay-to-play enforcement regime that turns a blind eye to grave threats to national security and consumer protection," Blumenthal said in the letter.

Blumenthal asked Atkins for records and communications between the SEC's enforcement division and leadership, as well as records between his office and any member of the Trump family. He said he wants a response by April 13.

An SEC spokesperson declined to comment.