In a CBS “60 Minutes” interview aired on Sunday, President Trump said he didn’t know who Changpeng Zhao is, though he’s the crypto billionaire with ties to the Trump family’s own crypto enterprise.
Zhao was the co-founder of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by way of trading volume. In 2023, Zhao, also generally known as CZ (pictured), pleaded guilty to violating U.S. anti-money-laundering rules, with Zhao later stepping down as CEO and the firm paying a nice of $4.3 billion. The corporate had formed a U.S. arm in 2017, which, in response to reports, was to distract financial regulators from the illicit activities of its parent company.
Following the arrest of Zhao, the Trump family reportedly stepped in to debate the takeover of Binance’s U.S. operations. In October, Trump pardoned Zhao. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a press release, “President Trump exercised his constitutional authority by issuing a pardon for Mr. Zhao, who was prosecuted by the Biden Administration of their war on cryptocurrency.”
Yet, on Sunday, when Trump had his first interview with “60 Minutes” in five years, Trump told host Norah O’Donnell he didn’t know who Zhao was. O’Donnell asked, “The federal government on the time said that CZ had caused ‘significant harm to U.S. national security,’ essentially by allowing terrorist groups like Hamas to maneuver hundreds of thousands of dollars around… Why did you pardon him?”
“OK, are you ready?” replied Trump. “I don’t know who he’s.” He claimed that Zhao had been the victim of a “Biden witch hunt,” adding, “I used to be told that he was a victim, identical to I used to be and identical to many other people, of a vicious, horrible group of individuals within the Biden administration.”
O’Donnell followed up by asking a few possible conflict of interest, on condition that Binance had helped facilitate a $2 billion purchase of the Trump family-owned World Liberty Financial stablecoin.
Trump said he’d been “busy,” explaining, “Norah, I can only inform you this. My sons are into it. I’m glad they’re, since it’s probably a terrific industry, crypto. I feel it’s good. You already know, they’re running a business, they’re not in government.”
He subsequently looked as if it would attempt to steer the conversation in one other direction, but O’Donnell pressed, asking him if the recent developments didn’t give “the looks of corruption.” His response: “I can’t say, because… I can’t say… I’m not concerned. I don’t… I’d fairly not have you ever ask the query.”
Trump stuck by his guns, claiming Zhao has been the victim of the Biden administration’s corruption. “We’re primary in crypto and that’s the one thing I care about,” he explained at the top of the segment, which was the top of the interview. “I don’t want China or anybody else to take it away. It’s a large industry.”
Photo: Flickr
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