Trump said he pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao after supporters told him Zhao had been unfairly prosecuted; Trump also said he did not know Zhao. The pardon drew scrutiny because Binance had a reported $2 billion deal involving World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture founded by members of Trump’s family. That overlap raises questions about appearances, but the public accounts described here do not establish that Trump personally received money from the deal or that clemency was exchanged for financial support.
What Zhao and Binance admitted—and what they were penalized for
Zhao’s individual guilty plea and Binance’s corporate guilty plea were separate legal outcomes. Zhao pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program at Binance, in violation of the Bank Secrecy Act. Binance separately pleaded guilty to federal violations. FactCheck.org reported the corporate resolution in November 2023; the May 2025 Senate letter records Zhao’s sentence and payments.
| Who | Legal outcome |
|---|---|
| Binance | Agreed to pay more than $4.3 billion in penalties. Then-Attorney General Merrick Garland called it “one of the largest corporate penalties in U.S. history,” as quoted by FactCheck.org. |
| Changpeng Zhao | Received a four-month prison sentence, a $50 million criminal fine, and a separate $50 million payment to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, according to the May 2025 Senate letter. |
Those corporate and individual figures should not be combined into a payment to Trump. The underlying guilty plea is also distinct from the later pardon: clemency does not, by itself, prove Zhao was innocent or erase the facts of his plea.
Why the pardon raised questions about financial ties
A May 14, 2025, letter from Senators Elizabeth Warren, Dick Durbin, and Richard Blumenthal described a reported $2 billion deal involving Binance, Emirati firm MGX, and World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin. The letter said Zhao had confirmed on a podcast on May 5 that he had applied for a presidential pardon. It was a request for information from the senators, not a finding that the deal bought clemency.
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The concern is the overlap: a pardon for the founder of Binance followed a reported business deal involving the Trump family’s crypto venture. The Senate letter called the convergence “urgent concerns regarding the integrity of our justice system.” The deal’s headline value does not establish that Zhao personally paid Trump, that Trump personally received its proceeds, or that the pardon was part of an exchange.
What Trump and the White House said
On October 23, 2025, the White House confirmed the pardon. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the White House Counsel’s Office reviewed pardon requests and described Zhao’s case as “an overly prosecuted case by the Biden administration.” That was the administration’s explanation, not a court’s characterization of the case.
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Trump’s public account was that he had been told Zhao had broad support and had been unfairly prosecuted. In a 60 Minutes interview, Trump said, “I don’t know who he is.” In a separate account, he said he did not believe he had met Zhao and granted the pardon at the request of “a lot of very good people.” Trump’s statements describe what he said he was told; they do not identify who made the requests or provide the internal review record.
CBS News reported that Trump’s sons and World Liberty Financial denied involvement in the pardon. The denials are relevant to the allegation, but they do not answer every question about the reported business ties or the pardon process.
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What is established—and what remains unresolved
- Established in the cited accounts: Zhao’s guilty plea and sentence, Binance’s separate corporate resolution, the pardon, the reported USD1 deal, and the public explanations and denials.
- Not established in those accounts: a direct bargain between Zhao and Trump, a personal transfer to Trump, or the amount of any personal gain Trump may have received from the reported deal.
- Still unknown: who specifically asked Trump to pardon Zhao and what the White House’s internal review materials said.
The available accounts therefore support scrutiny of the timing and appearance of the overlap, but not a conclusion that a quid pro quo occurred. Trump offered a general explanation based on requests from supporters and his view that Zhao had been unfairly prosecuted; the public information described here does not resolve whether other considerations played a role.
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