Bessent Says Four Agencies Wanted Megaspeed Blacklisted for Months and Commerce Holds the Pen, as Lutnick Prepares to Testify

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday that four federal agencies had wanted Megaspeed, the Singapore company at the center of the Nvidia spy scandal, placed on America's export blacklist for months, and that the decision belongs to Howard Lutnick's Commerce Department ^[1][2].

The Commerce Department has pushed back on the reporting around the dispute. It has denied an earlier account that Bessent confronted Lutnick about Megaspeed in the White House Situation Room, according to Axios and CNN ^[1][2]. Lutnick, for his part, has agreed to testify before the Senate Banking Committee about chip sales to China, CNBC reported ^[4]. And President Trump gave Lutnick a public vote of confidence on Thursday, Bloomberg reported ^[6].

What Bessent Said

Speaking on CNBC's "Squawk Box," Bessent said the Treasury Department, the Pentagon, the State Department and the U.S. Trade Representative had all favored adding Megaspeed to the Commerce Department's Entity List, the government's main tool for cutting companies off from sensitive American technology ^[1][2]. Commerce, he said, "has the pen," Axios reported ^[1].

Asked why the listing never happened, Bessent pointed questioners back to the department itself. "You will have to ask them about their internal processes," he said, according to CNN ^[2]. CNN reported that Bessent did not deny the earlier account of a confrontation with Lutnick, and that some of the president's advisers have discussed whether Lutnick should stay in his post, though no decision has been reported ^[2].

The Washington Post described Bessent's remarks as pointing directly at Commerce's failure to restrict the Nvidia customer, and noted that the department had been investigating whether Megaspeed broke U.S. export rules ^[3].

Why Megaspeed Matters

Megaspeed has become the thread connecting the Nvidia scandal to Washington's China policy. The Post reported that the company is at the heart of the scandal surrounding former Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang ^[3].

The questions about how the case was handled go back more than a year. The New York Times reported that Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security halted its Megaspeed investigation after Nvidia's general counsel contacted the agents working the case in August 2025, according to a summary of the Times report by The Next Web ^[5]. The case later moved to the Justice Department, where it is now a criminal inquiry ^[5].

Commerce told the Times that adding a company to the Entity List is a decision for the whole administration, not Commerce alone ^[5]. Megaspeed has denied smuggling chips ^[5].

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The Senate Steps In

Lutnick is now headed to Capitol Hill. CNBC reported that the commerce secretary will testify before the Senate Banking Committee following the revelations about Huang ^[4]. No hearing date had been announced as of Friday morning.

The testimony will give senators a chance to ask the questions Bessent raised in public: who reviewed the Megaspeed file, why it stalled, and whether the delay had anything to do with Nvidia's lobbying. Lutnick will also have the chance to answer the criticism directly and to explain his department's side of the story, which so far has come mostly through spokespeople.

The Bigger Picture

This is a fight inside a Republican administration, and it should be seen for what it is: a dispute over how hard to enforce rules that China hawks in both parties have pressed for. Keeping America's most advanced chips out of the hands of the Chinese Communist Party is not a partisan goal. It is a national security necessity, because the chips that train the world's most powerful computer systems also power weapons, surveillance and code-breaking.

There is a healthy side to what happened Friday. A cabinet secretary said plainly, on live television, where responsibility lies. The president has stood by his commerce secretary while Lutnick prepares to answer to Congress. The Justice Department is handling the criminal side of the case ^[5]. That is how accountability is supposed to work in a free government: officials argue in the open, lawmakers ask questions under oath, and prosecutors follow the evidence.

The harder question is structural. If four agencies agreed for months that a company should be blacklisted and the listing still never came, the process itself needs fixing, whoever holds the pen. Americans deserve an export-control system that moves as fast as the people trying to get around it.

What Comes Next

Watch for three things in the days ahead: a date for Lutnick's Senate Banking testimony, any move by Commerce to add Megaspeed to the Entity List, and whether the president keeps his commerce secretary in place as the Nvidia investigations continue ^[2][4]. Liberty Bell Report will follow each development as it is confirmed.