Former Binance chief Changpeng Zhao is demanding that Sen. Elizabeth Warren retract statements made following his pardon by former President Donald Trump. In a letter sent this week to the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, Zhao’s attorney, Teresa Goody Guillén, accused Warren of publishing defamatory claims about her client and warned that Zhao would not stay silent. “Mr. Zhao will not remain silent while a United States Senator seemingly misuses the office to repeatedly publish defamatory statements that impugn his reputation and cause him further injury,” Goody Guillén wrote in the letter. She asked for an immediate retraction and the removal of the disputed remarks from a recently filed Senate resolution. Fox News reported earlier in the week that Zhao is considering a libel suit against Warren.
Background: Guilty Plea and Presidential Pardon
Zhao, known in the industry as “CZ,” was pardoned last week by Trump after pleading guilty in 2023 to failing to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program at Binance. He was fined $50 million, and Binance agreed to pay $4.3 billion in penalties as part of one of the largest corporate settlements in U.S. history. Zhao was released from prison in 2024 after serving a brief sentence. Following the pardon, Warren posted on X criticizing Trump’s decision and claimed Zhao had pleaded guilty to a “criminal money-laundering charge.” She and Rep. Adam Schiff also introduced a resolution urging Congress to block what they called “blatant corruption.”
Zhao’s legal challenge underscores renewed friction between crypto executives and Washington lawmakers after the Binance case and Trump’s recent pardons.
Letter Rebuts Enrichment Claims
In her response, Goody Guillén disputed Warren’s assertion that Zhao or Binance had enriched Trump through business ties to the World Liberty Financial (WLF) project, a Trump-aligned decentralized finance venture. “Your insinuation that MGX’s equity purchase in Binance, whereby the consideration was a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin issued by World Liberty Financial, somehow ‘enriched’ President Trump and his family is factually and economically unsound,” she wrote. Goody Guillén added that if holding WLF’s USD1 stablecoin constituted “unlawful enrichment,” then “every exchange listing that token would be guilty of the same offense.” She called the allegation baseless, noting that Warren had provided no evidence of any financial link between Zhao and the Trump family.
Background on World Liberty Financial and MGX Deal
Ties between WLF and Binance have drawn scrutiny since early summer. The Wall Street Journal reported that WLF had discussed buying a stake in Binance, though Zhao denied lobbying for a pardon. About six weeks later, Abu Dhabi investment firm MGX said it would use WLF’s USD1 stablecoin to close a $2 billion deal with Binance. The transaction raised fresh questions in Washington about the overlap between Trump-linked projects and crypto businesses seeking U.S. regulatory leniency. Warren’s Dear Colleague letter circulated on Capitol Hill after the pardon accused Trump of abusing the Oval Office and claimed his family had grown wealthier since returning to power. Zhao’s lawyer called those comments defamatory and “unsupported by the factual record.”
The dispute intertwines U.S. politics and crypto regulation, with Trump’s pardon decisions drawing bipartisan scrutiny and reigniting debate over Binance’s past compliance record.
Legal and Political Context
Goody Guillén, a former litigation counsel at the Securities and Exchange Commission and now a partner at Baker & Hostetler LLP, previously was a candidate to lead the agency. Her involvement signals that Zhao intends to defend his reputation aggressively after years of regulatory clashes in multiple jurisdictions. Binance, once the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has faced investigations across the U.S., Europe, and Asia for compliance failures. Zhao’s plea deal ended a multiyear Justice Department probe but left the company under ongoing oversight. The renewed spotlight following his pardon has again pulled Binance into the center of Washington’s political fights over crypto regulation and enforcement.