Fox’s Bret Baier Grills Crypto Kingpin Pardoned by Trump: ‘You’re Saying There’s No Connection to the Trump Sons?’
Bret Baier pressed a recently pardoned cryptocurrency kingpin about possible ties to President Donald Trump’s own crypto venture.
Last month, Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao. In 2023, Zhao resigned as the CEO of Binance and pleaded guilty to allowing money laundering on the crypto platform. He served four months in prison. After Trump’s victory in 2024, Binance “formed a high-level task force to strike a deal with the Trumps’ nascent cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial, that Binance could leverage into clemency for Zhao,” according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited sources familiar with the matter. The publication added that Binance “catapulted the Trump family venture’s new stablecoin product, enhancing its credibility and pushing its market capitalization up from $127 million to over $2.1 billion.”
Despite pardoning Zhao, Trump has claimed he knows nothing about him.
“I don’t know who he is,” Trump told 60 Minutes on Sunday. “I know he got a four-month sentence or something like that. And I heard it was a Biden witch hunt.”
Zhao appeared on Friday’s Special Report on Fox News, where he denied having any business with World Liberty Financial, which was co-founded by the president’s sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. The Binance founder said he was “surprised” by the pardon, which prompted this exchange:
BAIER: You say you were surprised by the pardon. How did it come about?
ZHAO: So, what I meant by “surprise” is I don’t know when or if it’s gonna happen. So, I believe my lawyers submitted the petition in April. It took a few months. I don’t know the progress. There was no indication of how far it went along, et cetera. So, then it just happened one day.
BAIER: Yeah. You understand the skeptics who look at this and say, “Obviously you were doing some business with a firm that’s tied to President Trump’s sons. And we’re talking about millions and millions of dollars worth.” So, you’re saying that’s not the reason you got the pardon?
ZHAO: Absolutely not. I think those are completely categorically false information. I do not have any business relationship with any of the sons of President Trump.
BAIER: Here’s how The Wall Street journal writes it: “Around the time of the election, Zhao’s representatives began discussions with allies of Trump wanted to find a solution to Binance’s legal troubles in the U.S. and offering a deal with a Trump family business. Once Trump won, Binance formed high-level task force to strike a deal with the Trumps’ nascent cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial, that Binance could leverage into clemency for Zhao.” Is that not accurate?
ZHAO: That’s complete not accurate. There’s no deal. There has never been any discussions. It’s as simple as that.
BAIER: You’re saying there is no connection to the Trump sons who obviously do this firm, World Liberty Financial.
ZHAO: There’s no business relationships between me, Binance, and World Liberty Financial. So, I think all of those connections are categorially false. They just don’t exist.
Watch above via Fox News.
