"Commerce Has The Pen": Bessent Throws Lutnick Under The Bus Amid Agreement To Testify In Nvidia Spy Scandal

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday publicly pinned the failure to blacklist Megaspeed on Howard Lutnick's Commerce Department, as Lutnick agreed to testify before the Senate Banking Committee over the Nvidia spy scandal.

Asked on CNBC's "Squawk Box" about reported tension between the two over why the Singapore-based Nvidia customer still isn't on the Entity List, and whether only Commerce could have put it there, Bessent said: "I can tell you there was coordination. Treasury, War, USTR, and State were in favor of putting Megaspeed on the entity list for months."

"But Commerce has the pen. Commerce BIS has the pen. And you will have to ask them about their internal processes."

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent blames Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick over Nvidia chip mess: "Treasury, War, USTR and State were in favor of putting Megaspeed on the entity list for months." pic.twitter.com/0BTlHymwUY

— CNBC (@CNBC) November 13, 2026

BIS is Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security, the export-control arm run by Under Secretary Jeffrey Kessler. Axios reported this week