Overview
- In the CBS interview, President Trump said he did not know Changpeng “CZ” Zhao and claimed he was told the case was a Biden “witch hunt.”
- Norah O’Donnell pressed Trump on Binance’s $2 billion use of World Liberty Financial’s stablecoin, and Trump replied that he knew nothing about it and that his sons’ crypto work is outside government.
- Zhao pleaded guilty in 2023 to anti-money-laundering failures, served four months, and prosecutors said his conduct caused significant harm to U.S. national security.
- The White House defended the October pardon as a correction of what it called a Biden-era “war on cryptocurrency,” while critics cast the move as pay-for-play.
- Senate Democrats led by Elizabeth Warren have demanded answers from DOJ and Treasury on the pardon’s implications and possible conflicts with responses due Nov. 4, and it remains unclear how the pardon affects Zhao’s U.S. regulatory standing.