Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao’s attorney, Teresa Goody Guillén, sent a formal legal demand to US Senator Elizabeth Warren, accusing her of spreading “objectively false and defamatory” statements about Zhao’s criminal record and his recent pardon from President Donald Trump.
According to leaked correspondence dated October 28, Guillén, a partner at BakerHostetler and counsel for Zhao, accused the Massachusetts senator of “material inaccuracies” in her social media posts and public notes after Trump pardoned the former Binance chief.
The letter seen by Cryptopolitan claimed Warren’s comments “caused unnecessary harm to Zhao’s reputation” and could mislead the public “regarding the facts and the scope of the President’s Constitutional pardon power.”
Elizabeth Warren claims pardon involved corruption
As reported by Cryptopolitan, Trump granted a pardon to Zhao, who had pleaded guilty to a single regulatory charge related to Binance’s AML controls. Senator Warren alleged in her X post that the Binance founder “pleaded guilty to a criminal money laundering charge,” and claimed he “financed Trump’s stablecoin project,” “lobbied for a pardon,” and “today, he got it.”
Zhao stepped down as CEO as part of a $4.3 billion settlement with US regulators and agreed to pay a personal fine and a short prison term.
“If Congress does not stop this kind of corruption, it owns it,” Warren remarked, a quote that was later cited in a letter from her Senate office condemning the pardon as evidence of “political corruption” stemming from Trump’s crypto connections.
In her October 28 letter, Guillén demanded that Warren retract the statements because they were “categorically false, misleading, and inflammatory.” The attorney propounded that Zhao “pleaded guilty to a single regulatory count of failing to implement effective anti-money laundering controls, and not to a criminal money laundering offense.”
“You made objectively false statements that Mr. Zhao pleaded guilty to a criminal offense that he did not, which falsely imputes criminal conduct, corruption, and moral turpitude to Mr. Zhao,” Guillén wrote. “Mr. Zhao reserves his right to pursue all legal remedies available to address these false statements.”
Senator’s attorneys respond to legal complaint
Senator Warren’s legal team rejected the retraction request through a response letter dated November 2. Her attorney Ben Stafford of Elias Law Group insisted the senator’s statement was “true in all respects and therefore cannot be defamatory.”
“Senator Warren accurately represented publicly available and widely reported facts. The ‘charge’ referenced in Senator Warren’s X post refers to the charge to which Mr. Zhao pled guilty and as to which President Trump had just pardoned him. The law Mr. Zhao pled guilty to violating is an anti-money laundering law. All of this is public record,” the letter read.
Stafford argued Warren’s interpretation of the violation was justified because it involved the Bank Secrecy Act, an anti-money-laundering statute. He continued to say that her remarks referred to Zhao’s public guilty plea to that law.
In a recent interview with Fox Business before introducing her Senate resolution, Warren said Zhao “pled guilty to violating the law” and added, “I’m calling him out for what he’s pled guilty to.”
The senator’s resolution, co-sponsored by California Democrat Adam Schiff, called for a congressional investigation into a supposed corruption plan originating from Trump’s use of executive clemency powers.
Warren, along with Senators Bernie Sanders and Chris Van Hollen, also signed a separate letter to Attorney General Pamela Bondi, demanding clarification on whether Trump’s business dealings or campaign donors influenced his decision to pardon Zhao.
“If the Justice Department fails to act, it risks normalizing pay-to-play pardons in America’s highest office,” the senators wrote.
Since returning to the White House, President Trump and his administration have been in discussions with several companies in the crypto industry, and Binance became one of the corporate names supporting his family’s crypto enterprise, World Liberty Financial.
The company, launched earlier this year, manages a dollar-pegged stablecoin called USD1, and Binance was “foundational” in boosting its market credibility, sources speaking to the Wall Street Journal claimed.
If you're reading this, you’re already ahead. Stay there with our newsletter.
