After Pardoning CZ, Trump Insists He Doesn’t Know the Man

US President Donald Trump made some controversial comments on his own recent decision to pardon Binance’s founder, Changpeng ￰0￱ a recent 60 Minutes interview, he claimed that he didn’t know who CZ was, but he pardoned him because he “heard” his case was a “Biden witch hunt.” When pressed by host Norah O’Donnell on why he freed a man whom he didn’t know, the POTUS said: “Well, here’s the thing. I know nothing about it because I’m too busy doing other… My sons are into it. I’m glad they are, because it’s probably a great industry, crypto. I think it’s ￰1￱ know, they are running a business, they are not in government.” According to a full CBS transcript of the interview, Trump avoided a question about potential corruption on the matter, given his family’s broader involvement with the cryptocurrency industry, and added, “I’m not concerned.

I’d rather not have you ask the question.” The President’s claims are controversial, to say the least, given the recent history between Binance and the crypto businesses run by his ￰2￱ that the exchange facilitated a $2 billion purchase of World Liberty Financial’s stablecoin a few months back. Trump’s initial decision to pardon CZ led to an immediate backlash from Democrat ￰3￱ Warren, who condemned the move. Binance’s founder fought back, accusing her of misrepresenting the nature of the charges against ￰4￱ warned Warren to retract her statements or face legal ￰5￱ Sunday, the Senator’s lawyers rejected the defamation threat, stating that her post was factually correct.

“Senator Warren’s post is true in all respects and therefore cannot be ￰6￱ Warren accurately represented publicly available and widely reported ￰7￱ “charge” referenced in Senator Warren’s X post refers to the “charge” to which ￰8￱ pled guilty and as to which President Trump had just pardoned him,” reads the statement.