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President Donald Trump claims he doesn’t know who Changpeng Zhao is They pardoned the cryptocurrency billionaire last month First with the family’s connection to their crypto venture.
Zhao, also known as “CZ,” is the founder of crypto exchange company Binance and helped the Trump family make its own venture – World Liberty Financial – billions of dollars. Before being pardoned by the President Him.
The revived company is now set to reap its own windfall, A report came out last week.
Crypto Boss was pardoned 10 days ago plead guilty in 2023 To enable money laundering. He agreed to step down as CEO of Binance as part of a $4.3 billion settlement with the Justice Department and served four months in jail.
Trump was questioned about clemency in an interview with Norah O’Donnell cbs news program 60 minutes Which aired on Sunday.
“At the time the government said the CZ essentially caused ‘significant harm to US national security’ by allowing millions of dollars to move to terrorist groups like Hamas.” O’Donnell said“Why did you forgive him?”
“Okay, are you ready?” Trump replied. “I don’t know who he is.”
Trump said he had “heard” that Zhao’s case was a “Biden witch hunt”.
O’Donnell pressed the president about the option of pardoning Zhao after Binance helped finance the $2 billion purchase of World Liberty Financial’s stablecoin.
“Well, that’s the thing, I don’t know anything about it because I’m too busy doing other things…” Trump said, before O’Donnell interrupted him, saying, “But he got pardoned.”
“Nora, I can just tell you this. My sons are involved in this,” Trump said. “I’m glad they are, because it’s probably a great industry, crypto. I think it’s cool. You know, they’re running a business, they’re not in government.”
The president then attempted to move off the topic to discuss crypto more broadly, but O’Donnell brought the conversation back to Zhao’s pardon.
He asked the president if he was “concerned about the appearance of corruption” and Trump appeared to lose his patience.
“I can’t say, because… I can’t say… I don’t have any concerns. I don’t… I don’t want you to ask that question,” Trump said. Full CBS transcript of the interview.
Independent The White House has been contacted for comment.
Trump family members, through an umbrella company, own more than half of world freedom,
World Liberty’s new stablecoin product – a cryptocurrency designed to maintain a one-to-one value with the US dollar – has seen the value of its shares rise from $127 million to more than $2.1 billion this spring after Binance stepped in. wall street journal,
The technology supporting World Liberty’s stablecoin, USD1, was created by Binance and a few weeks after USD1 launched in March, an Emirati state-backed fund – MGX – used it to invest $2 billion in Zhao’s company, according to bloombergThe move by MGX reportedly provided World Liberty with the opportunity to potentially receive hundreds of millions of dollars in interest.
World Liberty told WSJ Binance was not involved in the deal with MGX, while a lawyer for Binance said Zhao “did not act as a relationship facilitator or financier” between MGX and the Trump family’s crypto venture.
Now that Trump has pardoned Zhao, the world’s largest trading crypto platform is likely to make a comeback in the US following its 2023 ban.
World Liberty told WSJ Amnesty was never discussed. The company’s lawyer, Tom Clair, said World Liberty “never aided, facilitated or influenced the decision on Mr. Zhao’s presidential pardon.”
White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt previously told the outlet that neither Trump “nor his family has ever been, or ever will be, involved in a conflict of interest.”
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren criticized Trump’s decision to pardon Zhao.
“First, Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to criminal money laundering charges. Then he promoted one of Donald Trump’s crypto ventures and lobbied for a pardon,” Warren said in a statement. “If Congress does not stop this type of corruption pending market structure legislation, it is responsible for this chaos.”
Democratic Representative Jerry Nadler of New York said, “Trump is selling clemency to anyone who can personally benefit him. This is a shameful abuse of power and a travesty of justice.”
Even some Trump supporters were vocal in their opposition to Zhao’s pardon.
Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of the software company Palantir Technologies, said in a post on X last week that Trump “has been given very bad advice.” “It makes it look like there’s massive fraud going on around him in this area,” Lonsdale, a Trump supporter, said.