President Donald Trump pardoned Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed to ABC News on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zhao pleaded guilty in 2023 to a money laundering charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pardon comes as Zhao made recent moves to boost World Liberty Financial<\/a>, a cryptocurrency company that Trump’s sons, Eric and Donald Jr., launched earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leavitt said in a statement that Trump “exercised his constitutional authority by issuing a pardon for Mr. Zhao, who was prosecuted by the Biden Administration in their war on cryptocurrency.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asked about the pardon by a reporter at the White House on Thursday, Trump asked if they were referring to the “crypto person” and said he was recommended to pardon him by others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “A lot of people say he wasn’t guilty of anything,” Trump said, adding, “I don’t know him, I don’t believe I’ve ever met him, but I’ve been told … he had a lot of support, and they said that what he did is not even a crime.\u00a0It wasn’t a crime that he was persecuted by the Biden administration, and so I gave him a pardon at the request of a lot of very good people.”<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n During the White House press briefing earlier Thursday, Leavitt sidestepped questions about whether Trump’s pardon was a conflict of interest because of the crypto exchange company\u2019s connection with the Trump family\u2019s crypto endeavors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “The president is exercising his constitutional authority to grant clemency requests,” Leavitt said during the press briefing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asked if Zhao\u2019s pardon could clear the way for Binance to resume U.S. operations, Leavitt deferred to the Treasury or the Department of Commerce for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In her earlier statement, Leavitt said: “In their desire to punish the cryptocurrency industry, the Biden Administration pursued Mr. Zhao despite no allegations of fraud or identifiable victims. The Biden Administration sought to imprison Mr. Zhao for three years<\/em>, a sentence so outside Sentencing Guidelines that the even the Judge said he had never heard of this in his 30-year career,” Leavitt said in the statement. “These actions by the Biden Administration severely damaged the United States\u2019 reputation as a global leader in technology and innovation. The Biden Administration\u2019s war on crypto is over.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Wall Street Journal<\/a> was first to report on the pardon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n