A billionaire who was pardoned by Donald Trump sent a lawsuit threat to U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who dropped a blistering reply through lawyers of her own.
Changpeng Zhao, the billionaire founder of crypto exchange Binance who recently received a pardon after months of boosting a crypto venture owned by President Donald Trump's family, reportedly asked Warren to retract a social media post about him. Specifically, the post claimed Zhao had pleaded guilty to a money laundering charge, which Warren says is objectively true.
Writer Brendan Pedersen flagged a letter sent by Warren's attorneys.
"We obtained a letter sent by lawyers for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) today in response to a defamation threat from Binance founder Changpeng Zhao. CZ wants Warren to retract a tweet saying he pleaded guilty to a 'criminal money laundering charge,'" he wrote before quoting the response statement.
"Your client asserts that Senator Warren has published a 'defamatory' statement about him in an October 23, 2025, post on X. Specifically, we understand your client to maintain that it is objectively false that he 'pleaded guilty to a criminal money laundering charge.' In relevant part, Senator Warren’s post stated that 'CZ pleaded guilty to a criminal money laundering charge and was sentenced to prison.' Senator Warren’s post is true in all respects and therefore cannot be defamatory," the letter says. "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 letter adds, "The law Mr. Zhao pled guilty to violating is an anti-money laundering law. All of this is public record, and is plainly what Senator Warren’s X post concerned. Simply put, any threatened defamation claim would be without merit. We provide further context below, which we trust resolves any misunderstanding as to what Senator Warren’s statement means."