Exclusive | Crypto mogul Changpeng Zhao mulls suing Elizabeth Warren for libel after Trumps pardon
Crypto tycoon Changpeng “CZ” Zhao is weighing a libel suit against Trump-hating Democratic Sen.Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts over a social-media posting that allegedly defamed him over the reasons behind his 2023 plea deal and subsequent jail term, The Post has learned.Zhao’s prosecution over violations of the Bank Secrecy Act led President Trump to pardon the 48-year-old crypto billionaire last week, stoking a wave of criticism that the move benefits the Trump family as it heavily expands into the digital coin industry.Warren, a powerful Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, has been among the staunchest critics of Trump’s crypto business ties and moves by the White House to deregulate the $4 trillion crypto industry.
Immediately after Trump’s pardon of Zhao last Thursday, she posted on X: “CZ pleaded guilty to a criminal money laundering charge and was sentenced to prison.But then he financed President Trump’s stable coin and lobbied for a pardon.
Today, he got it.If Congress does not stop this kind of corruption, it owns it.”But Zhao was never convicted of money laundering, just a violation of the Bank Secrecy Act for failing to maintain proper controls against potential nefarious activities while he was running the massive crypto exchange Binance before his forced resignation as part of the plea deal with the Justice Department. Through his lawyer Teresa Goody Guillen, he is preparing a letter calling for on Warren to retract the statement, she tells The Post.
Without a formal retraction, Goody Guillen said Zhao plans to file a defamation lawsuit imminently against the senator.“Mr.Zhao will not remain silent while a United States Senator seemingly misuses the office to repeatedly publish defamatory statements that impugn his reputation,” Goody Guillen wrote in a draft letter reviewed by The Post.
“Accordingly, Mr.Zhao respectfully immediately requests the retraction of these false statements, both within the resolution and on ...