The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board pulled no punches Friday in castigating President Donald Trump for pardoning "crypto kingpin Changpeng Zhao, who happens to be a Trump family business partner."
The editorial invoked the nation's Founders, suggesting that when it came to making presidential pardons absolute, "Hamilton and Madison might be having second thoughts as they watch President Trump dole out pardons as a form of political legal tender."
Ridiculing Trump for claiming that "a lot of people say that (Zhao) wasn't guilty of anything," the Journal noted:
"One of those people wasn’t Mr. Zhao, unless he was lying when he pleaded guilty in 2023 to violating anti-money laundering laws by not implementing safeguards on Binance, the crypto exchange he founded. The plea agreement he struck with the Justice Department says he turned a blind eye as terrorists, cyber-criminals and foreign adversaries used Binance to embezzle and dodge sanctions."
The Journal didn't spare Trump when it came to his motives.
"Could those lobbying for the Zhao pardon be members of his family and inner circle? Mr. Zhao, who served four months in prison, has since supported the crypto venture World Liberty Financial (WLF), in which a Trump family business entity holds a large stake. WLF was co-founded by Zach Witkoff, the son of Mr. Trump’s special diplomatic envoy. On May 1, Zach Witkoff and the President’s son Eric said Binance had accepted a $2 billion investment from an Abu Dhabi state-backed fund; the investment was made using WLF’s new stablecoin USD1."
And the board added a devastating parting shot.
"Readers can decide if they think the pardon had nothing to do with the investment, but it sure looks like a conflict of interest. A reasonable person would look at this and easily conclude that presidential leniency can be bought."