Warren, Schiff, Merkley Push for Vote on Senate Floor to Condemn Trump’s Pardoning of Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao

Warren, Schiff, Merkley Push for Vote on Senate Floor to Condemn Trump's Pardoning of Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao

"Pardoning convicted crypto billionaires sends a message: if you have money and the right connections, you don't have to follow the law."

Call on Congress to address this corruption: "If Senate Republicans don't let us fix this, then the Senate Republicans own this lawlessness."

Watch Speech Here (YouTube)

Washington, D.C. - Today on the Senate floor, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) urged their Senate colleagues to give unanimous consent to take up a resolution condemning President Trump for pardoning Changpeng Zhao, the founder and majority owner of the crypto exchange Binance, and calling for Congress to use its authority to stop this form of corruption. Trump's decision to pardon Zhao for his willful failure to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program while leading Binance comes after a stablecoin from World Liberty Financial, the Trump-affiliated crypto venture, was used to purchase a $2 billion stake in Binance.

Below are Ranking Member Warren's remarks as delivered:

Senator Warren: Mr. President, American families are struggling to pay for groceries and rent. Federal workers are missing paychecks. Americans across the country are watching as their health insurance premiums skyrocket.

But what is President Donald Trump focused on? He's just pardoned a convicted crypto billionaire who helped the Trump family get even richer.

Changpeng Zhao, known as "CZ," founded Binance, a giant crypto exchange that became a home for terrorists, child abusers, and other criminals.

Both Republican and Democratic policymakers have been ringing the alarm on Binance for years. Two years ago, several of my Republican colleagues warned that this crypto platform was facilitating "significant illicit finance activity" and that it could be "be providing material support to entities engaged in terrorism under Federal law, or being willfully blind to the fact that it may be doing so." Another one of my Republican colleagues warned that CZ was misleading the public about Binance's operations in China.

Republicans and Democrats were right to be worried. Binance facilitated financing for terrorist organizations like ISIS, Hamas, and Al Qaeda. It opened the spigot for Iran. Binance made it easier to finance child sexual abuse. One Binance employee even wrote that they needed a banner that said, "is washing drug money too hard these days? Come to Binance, we got cake for you." Binance put its profits ahead of following the law and ahead of America's national security.

This was criminal activity. Binance pleaded guilty to multiple criminal charges and was required to pay a penalty of more than $4 billion. CZ pleaded guilty to criminal charges and went to prison for willfully failing to maintain an effective money laundering program that could have prevented financing these terrorists and drug traffickers.

Oh, but CZ got a lucky break. A month after he was released from prison, Donald Trump was elected president. And CZ had bet on the right horse. Remember, CZ is still the biggest shareholder in Binance. And right before the election, Binance reportedly offered to strike a crypto business deal with the Trump family. When Trump launched his own crypto venture, Binance allegedly wrote the code.

And now, all of this is paying off big time for CZ, Binance, and the Trump family.

In May, a United Arab Emirates investment firm used the Trump family's stablecoin to buy a $2 billion stake in Binance- and President Trump and his family will make millions of dollars in fees and interest off the deal.

In the middle of all of this, CZ applies for a pardon. And last Friday, President Trump gave it to him.

When asked about his pardon of CZ, the President said that "a lot of people say he wasn't guilty of anything." Huh, but as one of my Republican colleagues rightly said, "He was convicted. He is not innocent."

Once again, President Trump has shown the American people that he's willing to turn a blind eye to money flowing to terrorists and child abusers, so long as it lines his own pockets.

Pardoning convicted crypto billionaires sends a message: if you have money and the right connections, you don't have to follow the law. You get a special deal after you've broken the law.

Congress needs to stop this kind of corruption. Today, we can send a message - a message that President Trump's pardon is wrong. We also have an opportunity to head off more corruption as Congress considers crypto market structure legislation. If Senate Republicans don't let us fix this, then the Senate Republicans own this corruption and lawlessness.

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