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US President Donald Trump’s pardon of former Binance CEO and the exchange’s founder Changpeng Zhao “CZ” reportedly came after an expensive lobbying campaign in Washington.
According to a recent report by Politico, Zhao benefited from Binance and its legal team’s efforts over multiple months to win over key figures close to Trump.
Binance Targeted People In Trump’s Orbit
Towards the end of September last year, Binance hired a close associate of Donald Trump Jr. by the name of Ches McDowell. The exchange also hired McDowell’s North Caroline-based firm Checkmate Government Relations to lobby the White House and Treasury Department on “executive relief,” according to the report.
Checkmate has been one of the highest-earning companies during Trump’s second term. In the past three months, the firm has seen $7.1 million in revenue, the report said.
Binance had paid Checkmate $450K for one month’s work.
However, Zhao’s pardon efforts did not stop there. Earlier this year in February, around three weeks after Trump’s inauguration, Binance and Zhao in his individual capacity each hired Teresa Goody Guillén, who is a leading crypto lawyer and was reportedly being considered by the Trump administration to lead the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Her firm disclosed that it earned $290K from Binance and Zhao this year so far.
Overall, Binance has already spent $860K this year. The largest crypto exchange in terms of daily trade volumes has also expanded its presence through partnerships, including one with the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform linked to Trump and his family, World Liberty Financial.
Earlier this year, Binance listed World Liberty Financial’s stablecoin USD1 on its platform. The exchange then went on to add the project’s WLFI token.
Binance leads trading activity for WLFI (Source: CoinMarketCap)
Trump Says Zhao Pardon Was At The Request Of A Lot Of “Good People”
Zhao pleaded guilty in late 2023 to a single count of violating the US Bank Secrecy Act due to Binance’s failure to maintain an effective anti-money laundering (AML) program. As part of the plea deal, Binance had to pay a record-breaking $4.3 billion fine, and Zhao had to step down as exchange’s CEO.
Zhao was then sentenced to four months in federal prison in April 2024, and was released in September the same year.
Earlier this month, Trump then pardoned Zhao.
“I don’t believe I ever met him,” Trump said of Zhao during a press conference after the pardon.
“But I’ve been told, a lot of support, he had a lot of support and they said that what he did is not even a crime, it 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 good people,” Trump added.
After receiving the pardon from the US President, Zhao took to X to express his gratitude.
“Deeply grateful for today’s pardon and to President Trump for upholding America’s commitment to fairness, innovation, and justice,” the former Binance CEO wrote.
Deeply grateful for today’s pardon and to President Trump for upholding America’s commitment to fairness, innovation, and justice.
🙏🙏🙏🙏Will do everything we can to help make America the Capital of Crypto and advance web3 worldwide.
(Still in flight, more posts to come.)…
— CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) October 23, 2025
“Will do everything we can to help make America the Capital of Crypto and advance web3 worldwide,” he added.
Lawmakers Condemn Trump’s Zhao Pardon
Many in the crypto community celebrated Zhao’s pardon, and agreed with the decision. Among these community members was Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss, who said on X that Zhao “deserved to get pardoned.” He argued that Zhao’s prosecution “was politically motivated.”
However, Senator Elizabeth Warren and US Representative Maxine Waters have condemned the pardon.
Warren said that CZ received the pardon after financing the President’s stablecoin and the lobbying efforts. She then called on Congress to “stop this kind of corruption.”
Similarly, Waters said in a statement that the pardon was a “massive favor for crypto criminals.”
“Trump’s pardon of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao—who pleaded guilty to enabling money laundering and facilitating suspicious transactions with child abusers, drug dealers, and terrorists—is an appalling but unsurprising reflection of his presidency,” Waters added.
The pushback from Warren and Waters follows concerns from lawmakers that the Trump family’s crypto interests present a conflict of interest, especially given the President’s power to influence policy.
In addition to World Liberty Financial, the Trump family is also involved in crypto mining and other ventures in the space.
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