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A lawyer for Senator Elizabeth Warren has dismissed claims that she defamed Binance founder Changpeng Zhao in a social-media post following his pardon by President Donald Trump.
Attorney Ben Stafford said Zhao’s threatened lawsuit “has no foundation,” explaining that Warren’s post relied entirely on facts already on the public record.
The dispute began after Warren’s post on X, dated October 23, which linked Zhao’s pardon to ‘corruption.’ Zhao’s attorney, Teresa Goody Guillén, demanded that Warren remove the post, calling her comments false and damaging. She warned that legal action would follow unless the senator issued a retraction.
In a letter sent Sunday and obtained by Punchbowl News, Stafford wrote that “any threatened defamation claim would be without merit.” He added that Zhao “pled guilty to violating an anti-money-laundering law,” which made Warren’s post “true in all respects.”
Court filings show Zhao pleaded guilty in November 2023 to failing to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program at Binance. The plea violated the Bank Secrecy Act, and a federal judge in Seattle sentenced him to four months in prison in April 2024.
Zhao has publicly said that there were “no money-laundering charges,” arguing he was convicted only of a compliance lapse. His lawyers maintain that Warren’s post misrepresented the charge. Stafford’s response letter disagreed, noting that the Bank Secrecy Act itself is an anti-money-laundering statute.
Warren’s X post also claimed that Zhao “financed President Trump’s stablecoin and lobbied for a pardon.” That remark reignited criticism of Trump’s decision to free Zhao, given Binance’s past dealings with the Trump family’s crypto company, World Liberty Financial.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Binance helped design World Liberty’s stablecoin USD1, which was later used in a $2 billion deal. That deal allowed Emirati investment firm MGX to buy a stake in Binance earlier this year.
The pardon has fueled questions in Washington about the former president’s connections to crypto ventures tied to his family. Politico reported that Binance and its legal team spent months lobbying Trump’s allies before the pardon was granted.
During a 60 Minutes interview, Trump dismissed questions about Zhao’s conviction and his family’s business ties, calling the case “a Biden witch hunt.” When asked why he pardoned Zhao, Trump replied, “I don’t know who he is … I heard it was a Biden witch hunt.”
The interviewer, Norah O’Donnell, pressed further, noting that Binance had helped arrange a $2 billion purchase connected to the Trump family’s stablecoin. Trump responded that he was “too busy” to know about it.
Asked about his sons’ involvement in crypto, Trump said they were “running a business” and that he had “nothing to do with it.” He added, “I’m glad they are [in crypto] because it’s probably a great industry.”
The remarks did little to calm concerns about the overlap between Binance’s operations and the Trump family’s digital-asset venture. Lawmakers continue to question whether the pardon created a conflict of interest or blurred ethical lines in Washington. The dispute between Warren and Zhao now hangs on one central issue: will the matter stop at words, or move into a courtroom?
The dispute between Elizabeth Warren and Changpeng Zhao centers on whether her social-media post about his pardon accurately reflected public facts. Warren’s lawyer maintains it did, while Zhao’s team argues it misrepresented his case. The issue now tests how far public statements by lawmakers can go before they invite courtroom action.
Read More: Elizabeth Warren Criticizes Trump’s Plan to Add Crypto in 401(k) Accounts
