Trump Admits on 60 Minutes He Doesn't Know Changpeng Zhao, the Binance Founder He Pardoned

On November 3, 2025, President Trump admitted during a CBS “60 Minutes” interview with Norah O’Donnell that he does not know who Changpeng Zhao is—the Binance cryptocurrency founder he pardoned just 11 days earlier on October 23, 2025. When asked why he pardoned Zhao, Trump stated: “Okay, are you ready? I don’t know who he is.” He also claimed: “I know nothing about it because I’m too busy doing the other.”

This extraordinary admission raised immediate questions about Trump’s pardon process and who influences his clemency decisions. Zhao, commonly known as “CZ,” is the billionaire co-founder and former CEO of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. In late 2023, Zhao pleaded guilty to failing to maintain adequate anti-money laundering controls at Binance, a charge that allowed terrorist groups including Hamas, Al-Qaeda, and ISIS to move millions of dollars through the platform. Federal prosecutors stated at the time that Zhao’s violations caused “significant harm to U.S. national security.” Binance paid a record $4 billion fine as part of the settlement, and Zhao served four months in federal prison before his release in September 2024.

The pardon came after Binance facilitated a $2 billion transaction by an Emirati state-backed fund (MGX) conducted entirely in World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin—a cryptocurrency venture co-founded by Trump’s sons Eric and Donald Jr. This transaction represented the vast majority of World Liberty Financial’s total deposits and could generate approximately $80 million annually in interest for entities tied to the Trump family. Binance also provided critical software infrastructure that helped World Liberty Financial launch its operations, effectively making Zhao’s company essential to the viability of the Trump family’s crypto business.

When interviewer Norah O’Donnell directly questioned Trump about the appearance of “pay for play” corruption given these financial connections, Trump denied any knowledge of the business relationship between the pardon recipient and his family’s financial interests. However, Trump did acknowledge his sons’ involvement in cryptocurrency: “I can only tell you this: My sons are into [crypto]. I’m glad they are, because it’s probably a great industry, crypto. I think it’s good.”

Trump’s claim that he doesn’t know Zhao contradicts the documented lobbying campaign that preceded the pardon. According to later reporting, Binance paid $450,000 to Trump Jr. ally Bo Hines for lobbying efforts to secure the pardon. Additionally, Trump defended the pardon by suggesting it was motivated by making the United States more competitive in the cryptocurrency industry, while accusing the Biden administration of conducting a “witch hunt” against Zhao—claims that seem inconsistent with his assertion of complete ignorance about Zhao’s identity.

Republican Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) called the pardon a “bad signal” and criticized its scope given the documented family entanglements. The admission also drew criticism for hypocrisy, as Trump had repeatedly attacked President Biden for allegedly being unaware of his own executive actions—a criticism that now applied directly to Trump’s own pardon decision-making process.

This interview revealed a disturbing pattern in Trump’s use of presidential pardon power: issuing clemency to individuals who financially benefit his family’s business interests while claiming complete ignorance about those same individuals. The fact that Trump couldn’t identify or describe the background of someone he granted a presidential pardon to—particularly when that person’s company had such substantial financial ties to Trump family ventures—raised serious questions about whether the president was actually making pardon decisions or whether others with financial interests were effectively purchasing clemency through business dealings with Trump family enterprises.

Former Justice Department officials and constitutional scholars would later characterize this pardon as “unprecedented corruption” and a case of “selling off pieces of our democracy,” with the president using federal clemency powers to benefit individuals who enriched his family’s business ventures. The November 3 interview provided Trump’s own admission that he granted this consequential pardon without even knowing who the recipient was, undermining any claim that the decision was based on legitimate considerations of justice or national interest.