President Donald Trump has garnered scrutiny on social media after he said he did not know Changpeng Zhao, the cryptocurrency billionaire he pardoned last month.
When asked in an interview with CBS News’ 60 Minutes why he had pardoned Zhao, who pleaded guilty to enabling money laundering in 2023, the president said, “I don’t know who he is.”
Newsweek contacted the White House for comment by email outside normal business hours.
Why It Matters
Trump’s October pardon of Zhao, who founded the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, was the latest instance of the president using his constitutional powers to intervene in legal cases.
The president’s supporters believe his pardons help people who they say have been treated unfairly by the legal system, while his critics accuse him of extending the boundaries of his power, undermining the legitimacy of the justice system and using pardons to help his political allies. Trump’s comment that he does not know Zhao will likely raise further questions about the care with which he issues pardons.
What To Know
In November 2023, Zhao pleaded guilty to federal charges and resigned from Binance after the Biden administration’s Justice Department found that the company’s platform failed to stop criminals from using it to move money connected to child sex abuse, drug trafficking and terrorism.
He was sentenced to four months in prison in April 2024 and released on September 27, 2024.
Though Trump pardon Zhao last month, when CBS’s Norah O’Donnell asked him on Sunday why he did so, he said: “OK, 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. And what I wanna do is see crypto, ’cause if we don’t do it it’s gonna go to China, it’s gonna go to—this is no different to me than AI.
“My sons are involved in crypto much more than I—me. 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. This man was, in my opinion, from what I was told, this is, you know, a four-month sentence.
“But 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.”
Call to Activism, a progressive X account with over 1 million followers, wrote on the platform, “Is Trump lying or is he just a f***ing moron?”
Harry Sisson, a Democratic activist wrote on X, “Donald Trump pardoning someone who he doesn’t know for reasons he doesn’t know is the real scandal.”
What People Are Saying
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt previously told Newsweek: “In their desire to punish the cryptocurrency industry, the Biden Administration pursued Mr. Zhao despite no allegations of fraud or identifiable victims.”
President Donald Trump told reporters while commenting on Changpeng Zhao’s pardon: “Let me just tell you that he was somebody that, as I was told—I don’t know him. I don’t believe I’ve ever met him. … 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 wrote on X following his pardon: “Deeply grateful for today’s pardon and to President Trump for upholding America’s commitment to fairness, innovation, and justice. Will do everything we can to help make America the Capital of Crypto and advance web3 worldwide.”
What Happens Next
The topic of presidential pardons is likely to remain in the spotlight as Attorney General Pam Bondi said last week that the Justice Department was reviewing former President Joe Biden’s alleged use of autopens to sign pardons during his presidency.