Molly White's Citation Needed - Trump says he has “no idea” who he just pardoned

Episode Date: November 3, 2025

President Trump reacts to condemnations of his recent pardon of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao by claiming he doesn’t know who he is. Originally published on November 3, 2025.

I'm Molly White, and you're listening to the audio feed for the citation-needed newsletter. You can see the text version of the newsletter online at citation-needed.news. Trump says he has, quote, no idea who he just pardoned. President Trump reacts to condemnations of his recent pardon of Binance founder Cheng Peng Zhao by claiming he doesn't know who he is. This issue was originally published on November 3, 2025. Faced with blowback over his pardon of finance founder Chengpeng Xiao, President Trump has offered a curious defense. He doesn't even know the guy.

Why Trump thinks this would somehow assuage fears that the pardon is improper is anyone's guess. Trump previously claimed Zhao, quote, had a lot of support, and so I gave him a pardon at the request of a lot of good people. In his latest interview, he repeatedly said he, quote, was told various things about Zhao, the length of his sentence, that he's, quote, highly respected and, quote, very successful, and that he was unfairly prosecuted. He has not said who exactly is doing the telling. Asked about the appearance of corruption, Trump bristled. Quote, I'd rather not have you ask the question. By the time Trump pardoned him, Zhao had already served four months in prison and paid a $50 million fine after admitting he

violated the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to run an effective anti-money laundering program at Binance. Binance itself paid $4.3 billion and pleaded guilty to three related charges involving unlicensed money transmitting and sanctions violations. Prosecutors and regulators argued those failures helped elicit funds move to terrorists, sanctioned groups, cybercriminals, and child abusers. Though Trump and members of his administration have portrayed the case against CZ as mere persecution as part of a larger Biden-led war on crypto, court documents describe a CEO and other company leadership intentionally breaking U.S. laws to maintain access to lucrative U.S.-based customers and setting up a complex scheme to divert regulatory attention away from the company's crimes.

The CBS interview. As Trump sat down for his first interview on CBS News after the network paid him a $16 million bribe, um, settlement, and installed right-wing pundit Barry Weiss as head honcho, he waxed poetic about how he, quote, sees good things happening in the news, one of them being Weiss's hiring, which he described as, quote, the greatest thing that's happened in a long time to a free and open and good press. Much of the interview consisted of softball questions, with few follow-ups and no fact-checking for some of Trump's more extreme claims, such as that China is actively testing nuclear weapons, which was met only with a remark that, quote, that would be certainly very newsworthy.

But after the wide-ranging interview concluded, O'Donnell asked if she could squeeze in one more set of questions. After laying out the history around Chang Peng Xia's conviction, noting that, quote, the government at the time said that CZ had caused, quote, significant harm to U.S. national security, essentially by allowing terrorist groups like Hamas to move millions of dollars around. She asked Trump why he'd decided to pardon Zhao late last month. Trump replied, quote, I don't know who he is. I know he got a four-month sentence or something like that. And I heard it was a Biden witch hunt.

This man was treated really badly by the Biden administration, and he was given a jail term. He's highly respected. He's a very successful guy. They sent him to jail and they really set him up. That's my opinion. I was told about it. Asked again why Trump would pardon someone accused of, quote, significant harm to U.S. national security, with O'Donnell noting the appearance of pay to play after Binance's involvement in a $2 billion deal, including the Trump family's World Liberty Financial Stable coin, Trump repeated, quote, I know nothing about it because I'm too busy doing the the other, then began describing his son's substantial crypto business dealings and the fact that

his son and wife each wrote best-selling books, concluding the ramble with, quote, I'm proud of them for doing that. I'm focused on this. Finally, when O'Donnell repeated, quote, so you're not concerned about the appearance of corruption with this, Trump seemed to grow irritated. Quote, I can't say because, I can't say, I'm not concerned. I don't. I'd rather not have you ask the question, But I let you ask it. You just came to me and you said, can I ask another question? And I said, yeah, I don't mind. Did I let you do it? I could have walked away. I didn't have to answer this question. I'm proud to answer the question. Trump and Zhao are on the defensive. Since announcing the pardon on October 23rd, Trump and Zhao have faced sustained criticism. While some in the crypto industry praised the move, many observers outside the sector regarded as a corrupt quid pro quote, paid for with the benefits to Trump's crypto businesses. Even some of Trump's staunch allies, such as Palantier co-founder and venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale, have condemned the move.

Lonsdale wrote, quote, Potus has been terribly advised on this. It makes it look like massive fraud is happening around him in this area. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts and a longtime critic of both Trump and the crypto industry, posted to Twitter, quote, CZ pleaded guilty. to a criminal money laundering charge and was sentenced to prison. But then he financed President Trump's stablecoin and lobbied for a pardon. Today he got it. If Congress does not stop this kind of corruption, it owns it.

The following day, she and the typically pro-crypto Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, introduced a resolution in the Senate titled, condemning President Trump's pardoning of Binance founder Chang Peng Zhao, who had violated United States anti-money laundering laws, and calling for Congress to use its authority to stop this form of corruption. Zhao hit back at Warren, demanding an immediate retraction and threatening to sue her for defamation over both the tweet and the draft resolution. Part of his displeasure seems to be related to Warren's portrayal of his involvement in business deals involving Trump and her characterization of the

pardon as part of a quid pro quo, but the retraction demand seems to center on Warren's statement that, quote, Cizee pleaded guilty to a criminal money laundering charge. While Zhao's lawyers have maintained that that is objectively false, Warren has replied via her lawyers that the charge, in full, failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program, is an anti-money laundering law, and that besides, statements made in the course of her duties as a senator are immune from defamation claims.

Warren and six other senators subsequently sent a letter to Attorney General Pampherson, Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, stating that, quote, the pardon, which signals to cryptocurrency executives and other white-collar criminals that they can commit crimes with impunity so long as they enrich President Trump enough seems likely to encourage rather than discourage criminal activity. The letter outlines a timeline during which, quote, finance and Mr. Zhao began cozying up to the president and his family through a series of financial deals. It details how Zhao and Steve Whitkoff met in December 2024 at a cryptocurrency conference in Abu Dhabi. Wittkoff co-founded World Liberty Financial, a crypto company partly owned by Trump and his sons. When Whitkoff became Trump's special envoy

to the Middle East and special envoy for peace missions, the company claimed he was in the process of divesting, though recent disclosures suggest he hasn't. Next in the timeline, the senators cite reporting that World Liberty had, quote, discussed doing business with Binance, potentially by having Binance develop a stable coin. Then they cite reporting about World Liberty's launch of the U.S.D.1 stable coin, and later reporting that Binance, quote, wrote the basic code for the token and promoted it to its large customer base. Finally, they point to the $2 billion deal, denominated in USD1, between Binance and the Whitkoff-linked Emerati firm MGX, a deal that has already earned World Liberty around $35 million in interest since May. Trump and his family members hold a stake in

World Liberty and earn a portion of its revenue. The letter concludes with a series of questions about how Trump's pardon will complicate law enforcement activities, what message it will send to criminals and to the crypto industry, and whether they believe Trump's business involvement with Zhao influenced his decision. It's signed by Senators Warren, Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, Sanders, an independent from Vermont, Herono, a Democrat from Hawaii, Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island,

and Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon. Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, has also been on the warpath over the pardon, which he is called pay to play. After Binance's U.S. U.S. arm announced they would launch USD1 trading for customers in the U.S. on October 29, Murphy wrote, quote, one week after Trump pardoned Binance's owner, for a stunning array of crimes related to terrorist and sex predator financing,

Binance starts promoting Trump crypto. The White House is a full-time 24-7 corruption machine. Binance U.S. responded to his allegations, writing, quote, this was a business decision on the part of Binance U.S. and nothing more. It's unfortunate that even routine business decisions are now unfairly politicized by our elected officials. The House Oversight Committee Report. Trump's attempt to dodge accountability for the pardon is poorly timed, coming only a week after the House Oversight Committee published a Republican staff report,

opining that executive actions signed by Biden with an auto-pen device are void, and recommending the Justice Department, quote, address the legal consequences. According to the report, this includes Biden's last-minute pardons of his own family and various members of his administration. The report declares with great horror that, quote, Biden's executive actions, especially pardons, of which there are many, cannot all be deemed his own, and cites the opinion of constitutional scholars that, quote,

the president must make the decisions, and the courts can hold pardons void if the decisions are made by others. By that logic, Trump's claim that he doesn't know who he pardoned is hardly exculpatory. If a pardon must reflect the president's own decision-making, I don't know him, invites the very same scrutiny the staff of House Oversight Chair James Comer, the Republican from Kentucky, just leveled at Biden. Comer was subsequently asked about Trump's claims not to know Zhao. Quote, well, I mean, I would assume he knew. But if he said he didn't, I have to look and see what he said. Sometimes he says things and we have to really analyze and give him another opportunity to make sure he didn't misspeak. Thanks for listening to this issue of the citation needed newsletter.

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