President Donald Trump has denied knowing Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, despite having issued the billionaire ex-CEO a presidential pardon in late October that erased his conviction for anti-money-laundering violations.
During President Trump’s televised interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday, the president distanced himself from Zhao when asked about the scrutiny from liberal leaders and Democrats over his administration’s relationship with the crypto industry.
Journalist Norah O’Donnell asked Trump why he granted clemency to Zhao after he pleaded guilty to money laundering allegations, served four months in prison, and paid a $50 million fine.
“OK, are you ready? I don’t know who he is,” Trump said. “I know he got a four-month sentence or something like that. And I heard it was a Biden witch hunt.”
“I don’t know the man at all. I don’t think I ever met him. Maybe I did. Or, you know, somebody shook my hand or something. But I don’t think I ever met him. I have no idea who he is. I was told that he was a victim, just like I was and just like many other people, of a vicious, horrible group of people in the Biden administration.”
CZ’s conviction and Binance’s penalties wiped clean after pardon
Zhao’s conviction in 2023 came on the grounds of charges that Binance failed to implement effective anti-money-laundering measures, which US prosecutors said allowed illicit funds, including those linked to terrorist organizations, to pass through the platform.
As reported by Cryptopolitan, Binance and its then CEO CZ agreed to a settlement with the US Department of Justice, with the latter paying a personal fine of $50 million, while Binance agreed to pay $4.3 billion, one of the largest penalties ever imposed on a crypto exchange.
Trump’s decision to pardon Zhao in October became a huge talking point for the Democrats, who argued it undermined the rule of law in financial oversight.
The US CIC had previously told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that he pardoned Zhao after “he was recommended by a lot of people” who claimed “what he did is not even a crime.” The White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later echoed that defense, saying the ex-Binance CEO’s prosecution was a “war on cryptocurrency” allegedly waged by the Biden administration.
“This was an overly prosecuted case. The president wants to correct this overreach and exercised his constitutional authority to do so,” Leavitt said during a press briefing post-Zhao’s pardon.
WLFI and Binance business adds to unfair advantage public outcry
In his 60 Minutes interview, Trump said he knew nothing about it because he was “too busy doing other things” that he couldn’t mention on national television.
“I can only tell you this: my sons are into it. I’m glad they are, because it’s probably a great industry, crypto,” the POTUS surmised.
Trump’s sons, Eric and Donald Jr., launched a crypto firm called World Liberty Financial together with Zach and Alex Witkoff, sons of Trump’s longtime real estate ally and special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Leftist congressional investigators reported that Binance saw through a $2 billion purchase of World Liberty Financial’s stablecoin, known as USD1, earlier this year. The exchange also reportedly supported the token’s launch, drawing significant Emirati investment in the weeks leading up to Zhao’s pardon.
The House Financial Services Committee also noted that Trump endorsed legislation favorable to stablecoins, shortly before Binance and Abu Dhabi investors began backing his family’s crypto project.
The committee’s report cited possible irregularities in USD1’s reserves, undisclosed foreign funding, and insider transactions involving entities linked to the Trump family.
“Changpeng Zhao is comically corrupt. And he just successfully won a pardon from Trump by boosting the Trump family crypto coin,” wrote Isaac Saul, founder of the political publication Tangle News. “I mean, this is a months-long scandal in any other normal administration.”
Liberals added more fuel to their insider allegations when news broke that Abu Dhabi’s sovereign investment fund MGX, run by a brother of United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ), used the USD1 stablecoin to make a $2 billion investment in Binance.