Trump says he doesn’t know Binance founder CZ after pardoning him

President Donald Trump says he knows nothing about it Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao or the company’s recent involvement in a cryptocurrency venture linked to Trump’s family, despite him being granted a pardon last month.

It was asked somehow CBS “60 Minutes” In the interview published Sunday, Trump said when asked why he pardoned the former crypto executive known as CZ, “Okay, are you ready? I don’t know who he is.”

Zhao stepped down as CEO of Binance in late 2023 and pleaded guilty on charges of failing to adequately combat money laundering on the crypto exchange. He was sentenced to four months in prison and released in September 2024.

Trump suggested that his decision to pardon CZ stemmed from his desire to make the United States 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 though Trump has repeatedly denied knowledge of his case.

“My sons are much more interested in crypto than I am. I know very little about it, except for one thing. It’s a huge industry,” he said. “And if we’re not going to be in charge of it, it’s going to be China or Japan or somewhere else.”

Although Trump said he didn’t know who CZ was, he said Zhao was “really mistreated by the Biden administration.”

“They sent him to prison and really set him up. That’s my opinion. I’ve been briefed on that,” the president said.

“I don’t know this guy at all. I don’t think I’ve ever met him,” Trump continued. “I have no idea who he is. I’m told he’s a victim of a vicious, horrible group of people in the Biden administration, just like me and so many other people.”

Trump’s claim that he knew nothing about the high-profile pardon recipient comes at a time when he and Republicans are arguing that pardons Biden issued through the “auto-open” method are invalid because the president was unaware of what he was signing.

Trump wrote: Real Social post He said in March that many of Biden’s pardons were invalid “because they were issued by Autopen. In other words, Joe Biden didn’t sign them, but more importantly, he didn’t know anything about them!”

House Speaker after Republicans on the Oversight Committee released a report last month on Biden’s use of auto-opening mike johnsonR-La., R-La., said the former president “doesn’t even know what the categories are, let alone the individual people he pardons.”

Binance agreed to pay a total of $4.3 billion in 2023 to settle a multi-year investigation. allegations It was stated that platform users made thousands of transactions supporting illegal activities, including terrorism and child abuse.

Then-Attorney General Merrick Garland called this sentence “one of the largest corporate penalties in U.S. history.”

Following Trump’s election, Zhao launched an aggressive pardon campaign, including publicly praising the president and filing pardon applications. The New York Times reported.

Binance also recently got tangled up financially with World Liberty Financial, a crypto finance platform that sent 75% of its token sale proceeds to a company linked to Trump and his family.

In May, World Liberty co-founder Zach Witkoff, the son of senior Trump administration official Steve Witkoff, said his company’s stablecoin would be used to facilitate a process. 2 billion dollar investment By Emirati state investment company MGX on Binance.

Later that month, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said it would drop its lawsuit against Binance and Zhao.

Trump announced Zhao’s pardon on October 23.

In Sunday’s CBS interview, Trump was asked to address “the outlook for pay-for-play.”

“Here’s the thing, I don’t know anything about it because I’m too busy,” Trump said, before momentarily interfering.

“I can only tell you this. My sons are in it. I’m glad about it, 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.

Turning to CZ, Trump said, “I don’t know anything about the guy, other than I heard he was a victim of government arming. When you say government, you mean the Biden government.”