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Trump says he doesn’t know Binance founder CZ after pardoning him
Changpeng Zhao, founder of Binance, attends the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris on June 16, 2022.
Benoit Tessier | Reuters
President Donald Trump said he knows nothing about Binance founder Changpeng Zhao — or that company’s recent involvement in a cryptocurrency venture linked to Trump’s family — despite granting him a pardon last month.
Asked in a CBS “60 Minutes” interview that aired on Sunday why he pardoned the former crypto executive known as CZ, Trump said, “Okay, are you ready? I don’t know who he is.”
In late 2023, Zhao stepped down as CEO of Binance and pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to sufficiently combat money laundering on his crypto exchange. He was sentenced to four months in jail and released in September 2024.
Trump suggested that his decision to pardon CZ was motivated by a desire to make the U.S. more globally competitive in the nascent crypto industry. And he accused the government under his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, of waging a “witch hunt” against CZ, even as Trump repeatedly denied knowledge of his case.
“My sons are involved in crypto much more than I— me. I— I know very little about it, other than one thing. It’s a huge industry,” he said. “And if we’re not gonna be the head of it, China, Japan, or someplace else is.”
Despite saying he didn’t know who CZ is, Trump said Zhao “was treated really badly by the Biden administration.”
“They sent him to jail and they really set him up. That’s my opinion. I was told about it,” the president said.
“I don’t know the man at all. I don’t think I ever met him,” Trump went on. “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’s claim that he knows nothing about a high-profile clemency recipient comes as he and Republicans have asserted that pardons issued by Biden using an “autopen” are invalid because, they argue, the president was not aware of what he was signing.
Trump wrote in a Truth Social post in March that many of Biden’s pardons are void “because of the fact that they were done by Autopen. In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them!”
After Republicans on the Oversight Committee issued a report last month on Biden’s autopen use, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said the former president “didn’t even know what the categories were, apparently, much less the individual people, that he pardoned.”
Binance in 2023 agreed to pay a total of $4.3 billion to settle a multiyear investigation into allegations that the platform’s users had made thousands of transactions in support of illicit activities, including terrorism and child abuse.
Then-Attorney General Merrick Garland called that fine “one of the largest corporate penalties in U.S. history.”
Following Trump’s election, Zhao mounted an aggressive campaign for clemency, including publicly praising the president and submitting pardon applications, The New York Times reported.
Binance also recently became financially entangled with World Liberty Financial, a crypto finance platform that sends 75% of token sales revenue to a company linked to Trump and his family.
In May, World Liberty co-founder Zach Witkoff — a son of top Trump administration official Steve Witkoff — said that his company’s stablecoin would be used to facilitate a $2 billion investment in Binance by Emirati state investment firm MGX.
Later that same month, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said it would drop its case against Binance and Zhao.
Trump announced Zhao’s pardon on Oct. 23.
Trump was asked in Sunday’s CBS interview to address “the appearance of pay for play.”
“Well, here’s the thing, I know nothing about it because I’m too busy,” Trump said before a moment of crosstalk.
“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. You know, they’re running a business, they’re not in government,” he said.
Returning to CZ, Trump said, “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.”
