Copyright Ars Technica
President Trump says he still doesn’t know who Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao is, despite having pardoned Zhao last month. CBS correspondent Norah O’Donnell asked Trump about the pardon in a 60 Minutes interview that aired yesterday, noting that Zhao pleaded guilty to violating anti-money laundering laws. “The government at the time said that C.Z. had caused ‘significant harm to US national security,’ essentially by allowing terrorist groups like Hamas to move millions of dollars around. Why did you pardon him?” O’Donnell asked. “Okay, are you ready? I don’t know who he is. I know he got a four-month sentence or something like that. And I heard it was a Biden witch hunt,” answered Trump, who has criticized his predecessor for signing pardons with an autopen. Zhao was charged with failing to maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program as required by the Bank Secrecy Act and pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to four months in prison in April 2024, and released in September 2024. The US government’s sentencing request asked for three years in prison. Trump family wheeling and dealing Trump pardoned Zhao on October 21 in a move that is likely to help Binance fully return to the US market. (Since 2019, Binance has operated a separate exchange for US customers.) Months before the pardon, the Trump family reportedly held talks with Binance about taking a financial stake in the crypto exchange’s US arm. Binance facilitated a $2 billion purchase of the USD1 stablecoin offered by the Trump-backed World Liberty Financial and built the technology behind USD1, a Wall Street Journal report last week said. Trump sons Eric and Donald Jr. have played a leading role in making lucrative crypto deals for the Trump family business. “My sons are involved in crypto much more than I—me,” Trump said on 60 Minutes. “I—I know very little about it, other than one thing. It’s a huge industry. And if we’re not gonna be the head of it, China, Japan, or someplace else is. So I am behind it 100 percent.” Did Trump ever meet Zhao? Did he form his own opinion about Zhao’s conviction, or was he merely “told about it”? Trump doesn’t seem to know: This man was treated really badly by the Biden administration. And he was given a jail term. He’s highly respected. He’s a very successful guy. They sent him to jail and they really set him up. That’s my opinion. I was told about it. I said, “Eh, it may look bad if I do it. I have to do the right thing.” 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. Trump: “A lot people say that he wasn’t guilty” Pointing out that Trump’s pardon of Zhao came after Binance helped facilitate a $2 billion purchase of World Liberty’s stablecoin, O’Donnell asked Trump to address the appearance of a pay-to-play deal. “Well, here’s the thing, I know nothing about it because I’m too busy doing the other… I can only tell you this. My sons are into it. I’m glad they are, because it’s probably a great industry, crypto. I think it’s good… I know nothing about the guy, other than I hear he was a victim of weaponization by government. When you say the government, you’re talking about the Biden government. It’s a corrupt government. Biden was the most corrupt president and he was the worst president we’ve ever had.” Even though Zhao pleaded guilty, Trump said shortly after the pardon that he was told Zhao “wasn’t guilty of anything.” The statement came when CNN correspondent Kaitlin Collins asked Trump at a press conference why he pardoned Zhao and whether it had anything to do with the Trump family’s crypto business. Trump answered, “I don’t know, he was recommended by a lot of people… are you talking about the crypto person? A lot people say that he wasn’t guilty of anything. He served four months in jail and they say that he was not guilty of anything.” Trump told Collins, “you don’t [know] much about crypto, you know nothing about nothing, you fake news… I don’t know him, I don’t believe I’ve ever met him, but I’ve been told… he had a lot of support and they said that what he did is not even a crime, it wasn’t a crime, that he was persecuted by the Biden administration. And so I gave him a pardon at the request of a lot of very good people.” Zhao is no longer CEO of Binance but maintains a controlling stake in the company and has an estimated net worth of $52.6 billion. After being pardoned, Zhao said in an X post that Binance “will do everything we can to help make America the Capital of Crypto and advance web3 worldwide.” Planning its return to the US, Binance “is considering a range of options including consolidating Binance.US into its global operation or having its global exchange enter the US market,” Bloomberg reported.
