"Alright, are you ready? I don’t know who he is." When asked why he pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, U.S. President Donald Trump responded this way during a CBS News "60 Minutes" interview.
Trump defended his decision to pardon CZ, claiming he does not personally know the crypto executive and rejecting criticism that the move was politically motivated.
01 Trump Denies Knowing CZ, Insists Pardon Was Justified
In the "60 Minutes" interview aired Sunday, Trump gave a series of surprising answers when host Norah O’Donnell pressed him about pardoning CZ.
"Okay, are you ready? I don’t know who he is," Trump said.
He claimed that, apart from hearing CZ was "a victim of government weaponization," he knew nothing about him.
When O’Donnell followed up about Binance allegedly facilitating a $2 billion stablecoin purchase tied to Trump-backed World Liberty Financial prior to the pardon, Trump replied:
"Well, here’s the thing, I know nothing about it because I’ve been too busy dealing with other things."
Trump emphasized that all he knew was CZ had received a sentence of about four months, and he viewed the case as "Biden’s political persecution."
02 Trump’s Sons Draw Scrutiny, Crypto Industry in the Spotlight
During the interview, Trump mentioned his sons’ involvement in crypto businesses, which appeared to explain his indirect connection to CZ.
"Norah, I can only tell you this
