U.S. President Donald Trump ignited a social media firestorm when he claimed he did not know Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ)—just days after pardoning the crypto billionaire for breaching U.S. bank law in 2023. Owing to the shock waves triggered by President Trump’s remarks, the White House stepped in to issue a clarification.
Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary of the White House addressed the media on November 4. During the interaction she was questioned about President Trump’s denial on knowing CZ.
“He means he does not know him personally. He means he does not have a personal relationship with this individual,” Leavitt said.
She did, however, make it a point to highlight that the White House takes decisions around Presidential pardons with “utmost seriousness”.
“The President understands the responsibility that he has as president to issue clemency and issue pardons to individuals who are seeking that. We have a very thorough review process here that moves with the Department of Justice and the White House Council’s office. There’s a whole team of qualified lawyers who look at every single pardon request,” the press secretary said.
On October 23, CZ was pardoned for having breached the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) in 2023 when he was serving as the CEO of Binance. He had petitioned for a Presidential pardon in May this year.
After approving the pardon, President Trump claimed he knew nothing about CZ but was informed that CZ was a victim of a “witch hunt” that was initiated against the crypto industry under former U.S. President Joe Biden.
Explaining the situation Leavitt said that the President Trump was very certain that he was most interested in looking at pardoning individuals who were “abused” by the Biden department.
“The individual you’re referring to, that was certainly the case. Even the judge in his case said that the sentencing that the Biden administration was asking for was egregious and went too far,” Leavitt noted.