Trump’s Pardon of His Crypto Pal Is a New Height of Corruption
After leaving prison, Zhao set about securing a presidential pardon so Binance’s owner could once again be Binance’s chief executive. To achieve this, Zhao hired a friend of Don Jr.’s named Ches McDowell, and also Teresa Goody Guillén, who happens also to represent Zach Witkoff, chief executive of World Liberty Financial and son to chief Mideast negotiator Steve Witkoff.
Meanwhile, Zhao and Binance made themselves useful to World Liberty Financial in multiple ways. Most significantly, that $2 billion UAE payment to Trump (specifically, to World Liberty Financial, in which the Trump family then owned a majority stake) was used to purchase a stablecoin, USD1, that in turn was invested in Binance.
Binance also supplied World Liberty…
