President Donald Trump claimed he has no idea who the money-laundering crypto billionaire he pardoned actually is.
Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who had pleaded guilty to money-laundering violations that allowed criminal groups to move money connected to drug trafficking and child abuse.
The October pardon came just months after Binance, a crypto exchange, struck a $2 billion deal in partnership with the Trump family’s crypto venture, World Liberty Financial.
During Trump’s interview on 60 Minutes Sunday, Norah O’Donnell asked the 79-year-old president why he had granted clemency to Zhao.
“OK, are you ready? I don’t know who he is,” Trump replied. “I know he got a four-month sentence or something like that. And I heard it was a Biden witch hunt.”
Pointing to World Liberty Financial’s multibillion-dollar deal with Binance, O’Donnell, 51, asked, “How do you address the appearance of pay-for-play?”
The president again claimed ignorance of the pardon he signed: “Well, here’s the thing, I know nothing about it because I’m too busy doing the other—I can only tell you this: My sons are into it. I’m glad they are, because it’s probably a great industry, crypto.”
A voiceover from O’Donnell noted in the 60 Minutes broadcast that World Liberty Financial—founded by Trump’s sons Eric and Don Jr. together with Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff’s sons Zach and Alex—has denied any involvement in the pardon.
Trump previously told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that he had pardoned Zhao after “he was recommended by a lot of people” who said that “what he did is not even a crime.”
The full transcript from O’Donnell’s interview reveals that 60 Minutes’ broadcast cut an extended rant Trump went on, in which he said he wants to “make crypto great for America,” railed against “corrupt” former President Joe Biden, and waffled on whether he’d ever met Zhao.
“I don’t know the man at all,” Trump said, according to the full transcript. “I don’t think I ever met him. Maybe I did. Or, you know, somebody shook my hand or something. But I don’t think I ever met him. I have no idea who he is. I was told that he was a victim, just like I was and just like many other people, of a vicious, horrible group of people in the Biden administration.”
Zhao, 48, a Chinese-born Canadian who is one of the world’s richest people, served four months in prison after his 2023 conviction and was released from prison in September 2024.
The 60 Minutes transcript also shows O’Donnell saved her question about the pardon for last, perhaps catching Trump off guard.
“So [you’re] not concerned about the appearance of corruption with this?” O’Donnell asked Trump.
“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,” the president said.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Binance formed a high-level task force once Trump won the election to figure out how to strike a deal with World Liberty in a bid to secure a pardon for Zhao.
Binance ultimately came up with a way to help raise World Liberty’s market capitalization from $127 million to more than $2.1 billion, according to the Journal.
