President Donald Trump’s pardoning of the founder of crypto exchange Binance was met with immediate backlash from one of the president’s most ardent billionaire supporters.
Joe Lonsdale, a venture capitalist and cofounder of the data-mining firm Palantir, questioned who was advising Trump after he pardoned Changpeng Zhao on Thursday.
Zhao, better known online as CZ, served four months in jail after admitting to money-laundering violations that allowed drug dealers, terrorists, and child sex abusers to move money on his platform.
The pardon came just months after Binance struck a deal with World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s crypto venture, which could generate millions of dollars for the president’s family.
“I love President Trump; this is possibly the greatest admin of my lifetime—except for these pardons,” Lonsdale, who has an estimated net worth of $3.5 billion, posted on X.“If I’m calling balls and strikes, these are hit-by-pitches! POTUS has been terribly advised on this; it makes it look like massive fraud is happening around him in this area.”
Far-right activist Laura Loomer, an influential figure in Trump’s ear, also lashed out at reports earlier this month that Zhao was being considered for a pardon.
“Another terrible pardon idea that I’m sure someone is getting paid a lot of money to push,” Loomer posted on X. “It’s like people are just trying to set the admin up at this point.” Loomer has not commented on the pardon since it was confirmed by the president.
Elsewhere, GOP Sen. Thom Tillis, who clashed with Trump for not supporting the president’s “big, beautiful” spending bill, also condemned the pardon as a “bad signal.”
“I don’t like it,” he told reporters, via Politico. “He was convicted. He’s not innocent.”
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, has been barred from operating in the U.S. since 2023 due to Zhao’s conviction. The Chinese-born Canadian has been lobbying the Trump administration for a pardon since his release from prison last September.
In March, The Wall Street Journal reported that representatives of the Trump family’s crypto venture met to discuss taking a stake in the U.S. arm of Binance. Zhao denied that he sought to make the deal in exchange for a pardon.
“Fact: I have had no discussions of a Binance US deal with … well, anyone,” he posted on X. “No felon would mind a pardon, especially being the only one in U.S. history who was ever sentenced to prison for a single [Bank Secrecy Act] charge.”
On Thursday, Trump admitted that he didn’t know who Zhao was when he granted the pardon but said he acted on the advice of “a lot of very good people.”
“I don’t believe I’ve ever met him, but he had a lot of support, and they said that what he did is not even a crime, that he was persecuted by the Biden administration,” Trump said.
Multiple Democrats also condemned the pardon, accusing it of amounting to blatant corruption.
“First, Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to a criminal money-laundering charge. Then he boosted one of Donald Trump’s crypto ventures and lobbied for a pardon,” Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a statement.
“Today, Donald Trump did his part and pardoned him. If Congress does not stop this kind of corruption in pending market structure legislation, it owns this lawlessness.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
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