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Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

• ExpertAdvisor01 11mo ago
  At least pardons are public in the us .
• scrlk 11mo ago
  https://archive.ph/XRw42 https://archive.ph/XRw42
• mmayberry 11mo ago
  Fraud is now legal
  • greenpizza13 11mo ago
    As long as you bow to King Trump.
    • 3327 11mo ago
      [dead]
    • gorjusborg 11mo ago
      I have no proof of this, but I would bet that there will be some quid-pro-quo involved between Trump and the pardonee. Trump does not usually give things away, he leverages his power to get more power/money.
      • andrewinardeer 11mo ago
        He didn't pardon Maxwell despite her coming out and saying she didn't see Trump do anything awful with Epstein.
        • cm2012 11mo ago
          He had her transferred to a much nicer jail though, against regulations and without explanation.
  • bayarearefugee 11mo ago
    If you're already rich and can stomach writing a flattering letter to Dear Leader you're leaving money on the table by not committing massive fraud right now.
    • bayesianbot 11mo ago
      I feel like democrats should make it clear that if there's still a fair election and they regain power, they'll go after both the corrupt people in this admin and entities buying favors. The current state can't be too good for the society, at least there should be a clear possible downside for being a part of it.
  • Finnucane 11mo ago
    Fraud has been an essential component of Trump's business his whole life, he clearly doesn't see it as a crime. And the crypto guys have spent a lot of money getting into his good graces. He knows a good grift when he sees it.
  • wslh 11mo ago
    Beyond the Trump effect, a lot of fraud has always been "legal", mostly because the victims can't afford to go after the fraudsters.
  • drak0n1c 11mo ago
    CZ was not involved in fraud, the case only found him guilty of not doing enough to surveil his customers to sufficiently block US citizens from using a crypto exchange that other people from sanctioned countries could use.
• taylodl 11mo ago
  I'm impressed. Leavitt managed to Blame the Biden administration, effectively asserting that Zhao's crimes were a result of the Biden administration's "war on crypto." Never mind that Zhao was engaged in criminal activity for which he was prosecuted, tried, and found guilty.
  • nickff 11mo ago
    Please correct me if I'm wrong, but Zhao was convicted of crimes which were a direct result of his operating a crypto exchange, and not any other criminal activity. It may be possible to operate a legally-compliant crypto exchange, but I am not sure that any current exchange is fully compliant with US law. If we agree on these facts, and think that the 'war on drugs' is what has resulted in 'drug possession' and 'drug trafficking' convictions, then it seems reasonable to say that Zhao was convicted as the result of a 'war on crypto'. I am actually not sure that either the 'war on drugs' or a 'war on crypto' is a bad idea, but they do seem analogous.
    • mullingitover 11mo ago
      > and not any other criminal activity He made a lot of money from the other criminal activity. That's what money laundering is: just because you're not directly trafficking children, for example, doesn't mean you have clean hands when you make significant profits from the people who are.
      • nickff 11mo ago
        What you're describing is (in my view) the best casus belli for both the 'war on drugs' and a 'war on crypto', but a moral case does not make a criminal case (on its own).
        • mullingitover 11mo ago
          I don't even necessarily think a 'war on crypto' is needed. The problem is that crypto seems to function as a get out of jail free card for very straightforward financial crimes: you just do the financial crime, but apply a thin veneer of 'but with crypto' and the legal system is utterly bamboozled. Crypto's problem is that when the law is updated to deal with these stunts, it's suddenly just a crappy version of the existing financial system.
• pulisse 11mo ago
  Sub-headline: "Pardon follows months of efforts by Changpeng Zhao to boost the Trump crypto company"
  • verdverm 11mo ago
    Subtext, a convicted fraudster pardons a convicted fraudster
    • drak0n1c 11mo ago
      CZ was not convicted of fraud or even money laundering. There's a reason the sentence was only 4 months. His charge was the first ever prosecution of a platform/bank poorly implementing KYC and not doing enough surveillance of its users to comply with the letter of AML regulations. The case relied on the theoretical possibility of US citizen users placing trades that are matched by people from sanctioned countries - it did not even find cases of such trades. Big banks routinely pay fines for this, and never face imprisonment. Regardless of what you think of the circumstances of the pardon, the prosecution was not related to fraud and was an unusual case by a DOJ that was recently embarrassed by FTX and was arguably symbolic in intent.
      • verdverm 11mo ago
        The amount of corruption around this is crazy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMEJTORMVN4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMEJTORMVN4 (this video has a nice timeline of the related events, including the GPU for crypto "deal")
• koolba 11mo ago
  > Zhao, in November 2023, pleaded guilty in Seattle federal court and agreed to step down as Binance CEO as part of a $4.3 billion settlement by the company with the Department of Justice. Did he already pay the $4.3 billion? That's a lot of money, even for the federal government.
  • al_borland 11mo ago
    From what I can tell, Binance had to pay the $4.3B, while Zhao had to pay $50M. The status of each isn’t something I can readily find.
    • culi 11mo ago
      Whatever he hasn't paid of that $50M, he'd no longer be on the hook for
  • Fluorescence 11mo ago
    I understand that the commutation of George Santos means he does not have to pay the court ordered restitution to the people he defrauded. Puts an even grosser spin on this incineration of the rule of law. Penalties within plea deals likely have different rules but given a pardon is a higher rung of absolution I am horrified to wonder if he could clawback any personal financial penalties he has paid or even seek compensation.
• keernan 11mo ago
  >>Representatives of the Trump family have held talks to take a financial stake in the U.S. arm of Binance.
• insane_dreamer 11mo ago
  Most corrupt president in living memory (ever?) pardons convicted corrupt businessman, while directly profiting from said corrupt businessman's industry Years ago people would have thought you were talking about the DRC, Haiti or Uzbekistan. Today's it's the USA.
  • WheatMillington 11mo ago
    Don't kid yourself, US political corruption pre-dates Trump. This is just bringing it to a new level.
    • bena 11mo ago
      Yes, he clearly said "most corrupt", not "first corrupt".
    • zen928 11mo ago
      It's honestly a shame that comments from people like you will be silently forgotten, when your unending ceaseless discharge of excuses to sweep the rug for the current status quo should be something that you should never be allowed to forget. I guess you have a point though, a flame left unextinguished will only grow and that was the result here. Not too many outcomes remain when you only add more fuel, but there is always another way to solve that problem :)
    • twixfel 11mo ago
      I find comment such as yours rather pathetic, for reasons I can't quite put into words. It's like you want to make excuses for Trump but you're not really willing to actually commit to it. Political corruption was not invented by Trump. We know. But that's really not the point at all.
      • gitaarik 11mo ago
        I don't understand this. Should only Trump be blamed? I think that's stupid. All presidents before him were just as corrupt as him, only Trump doesn't care how people think of him, so he's not very sublte, like the other presidents. In that way I think Trump is actually revealing the corruption.
• bdavisx 11mo ago
  Serious question - it seems that many of this Administrations activities are illegal in some way or the other. I know that government officials are shielded from a lot of actions so they can not be prosecuted. What actions that have been taken could actually be prosecuted? For example, I would have to assume that the ballroom demolition and build-out is illegal, there were $0 appropriated from Congress for this, and it doesn't seem like direct donations would be legal either. They are donations to the government and Congress has to appropriate that money too. NOTHING is going to happen while the Republicans control congress, period. What could be done when the next administration comes in? Not just about the ballroom, but the various other things like this pardon. What of these actions are prosecutable?
  • ksherlock 11mo ago
    "Well, when the president does it ... that means that it is not illegal" -- Richard Nixon (1977) "Well, when the president does it ... that means that it is not illegal" -- SCOTUS (2024) That leaves impeachment as the only legal remedy, which you've correctly identified as not a possibility with the current congress.
    • shoemakersteve 11mo ago
      His two previous impeachments don't seem to have slowed him down, so it seems unlikely that a third would be any different. Not to mention his felony conviction.
      • stetrain 11mo ago
        The actual legal remedy is impeachment + conviction by the senate. That hasn't happened yet and seems unlikely unless he actually loses the support of his own party.
  • JumpCrisscross 11mo ago
    > it seems that many of this Administrations activities are illegal Many are. This one is not. The President has sweeping pardon powers. The solution is to strike the final phrase in Article 2, Section 2, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution: “and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.” [1]. There isn’t a place for one-man pardons in a republic. If the courts overreach, address it through legislation. (Even the imperium-obsessed Romans didn’t give their dictators, much less consuls, automatic pardon power. Caesar had to get special legislation to overrule the law.) With Presidents of both parties having so recently abused pardons, we may be in a place where a wave could pass a Constitutional amendment at the federal level, allowing it to be punted to the states. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_Two_of_the_United_States_Constitution#Clause_1:_Command_of_military;_Opinions_of_cabinet_secretaries;_Pardons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_Two_of_the_United_Stat...
• skm12 11mo ago
  - Zhao has ties to World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture that Trump and his sons Eric and Donald Jr. launched in September. - Trump’s most recent financial disclosure report reveals he made more than $57 million last year from World Liberty Financial
  • dgrr19 11mo ago
    they just reported 1B from crypto ventures, so 57m seems like lunch money...
    • jb1991 11mo ago
      I wonder what those ventures actually are and how that money is made?
• cedws 11mo ago
  Is there any way to read this other than Trump is cuddling up to crypto because it’s a tool for him and his cronies to make dodgy money?
  • zeld4 11mo ago
    in this particular case maybe. but i don't think he's pardoning only crypto people. as long as criminals can offer sth useful to him, they will get above the law.
  • EgregiousCube 11mo ago
    Yes - he campaigned on making America more crypto-friendly in general; this could also be read as part of making good on that promise.
    • csto12 11mo ago
      I hope this is satire. Only a moron would think this.
      • frogpelt 11mo ago
        It answers the question posed. Unless you think only morons have opinions that differ from yours.
        • yoyohello13 11mo ago
          Moronic opinions are still moronic and should be called out as such. Making America more crypto friendly by pardoning fraudsters is an objectively stupid take.
    • righthand 11mo ago
      This makes me hate cryptocurrency more and make me support candidates that want feel the same, that we should be prosecuting cryptocurrency fraud. How is that making it more friendly?
    • 11mo ago
• billy99k 11mo ago
  [flagged]
  • DengistKhan 11mo ago
    Unfortunately, this narrative's utility is pretty low and it's intended implications are severely weakened by the current administration's obsession with revenge, blaming everything on someone else, and persecuting political opponents. If such openly hostile and norms-breaking rhetoric did not exist before the pardons, then the pardons would appear suspicious.
    • billy99k 11mo ago
      This is nonsense. The Biden administration went after Trump's lawyers, censored American citizens that supported Trump, and put people in prison for years that walked near the capital on J6 (and never participated in the riots). In addition to this, Trump was brought up on federal charges that we still don't know today. They were: Charge 1..2..3..4. If you look at all of the court documents released, they didn't even have evidence of an actual crime. It fell apart so quickly, it was so obviously made up. Biden's family took money from foreign governments and was definitely involved in Ukraine corruption. It was pretty evident Hunter would have been brought up on charges and sentenced to a long prison sentence, if not for the pardon. This isn't even mentioning anything linking Biden to the crimes, which was a real possibility during the investigation. It's not revenge, it's justice. I also want justice for the the corrupt politicians during the previous administrations that always seem to get out of everything. Hillary ran an email server from her office that contained government emails, and you are really going to tell me that there's 'nothing to see here'? We would still be hearing about it today if anyone on the other side had done the same thing. The real crimes started when Trump was running in his first term and Obama colluded with Russian agents to spy on him. This is really supposed to be okay with no punishment? All eyes are on Trump and the only thing even close to a crime that was found was bringing home documents that he was allowed to declassify. Something every politician in history has done. After what I've witnessed in the last decade, it really makes me question the accuracy of our history books.
• dredmorbius 11mo ago
  Additional coverage (from other HN submissions): QZ: <https://qz.com/trump-pardon-binance-changpeng-zhao https://qz.com/trump-pardon-binance-changpeng-zhao> Reuters: <https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-pardons-convicted-binance-founder-zhao-white-house-says-2025-10-23/ https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-pardons-convicted-bin...> The Guardian: <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/23/binance-trump-pardon-changpeng-zhao https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/23/binance-t...>
• perihelions 11mo ago
  Key line: > "Since Trump’s election, Binance has also been a key supporter of his family’s World Liberty Financial crypto venture, a business that has driven a huge leap in the president’s personal wealth." "Huge leap" meaning $5 billion, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-wlfi-world-liberty-financial-crypto-wealth/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-wlfi-world-liberty-financ... ("New crypto token boosts Trump family's wealth by $5 billion")
  • JKCalhoun 11mo ago
    $5B, so far.
  • kentm 11mo ago
    Not sure why you quote it, that's pretty huge. I'd call any double-digit percent increase on a billionaire's wealth huge.
    • happytoexplain 11mo ago
      I think the parent is quoting the phrase simply because they are defining it, and not using sarcasm quotes.
    • perihelions 11mo ago
      (It's a literal quote of the WSJ).
    • Capricorn2481 11mo ago
      They're saying it's an understatement.
  • pacman1337 11mo ago
    But Binance founder doesn't work for Binance anymore so why pardoning founder help Binance?
    • peer2pay 11mo ago
      Because it sets a precedent
• b3ing 11mo ago
  So is Friedman next?
  • cool_man_bob 11mo ago
    Didn’t he donate to the wrong guy?
    • spprashant 11mo ago
      No issues. Trump can forgive almost anything for the right price.
      • andrewinardeer 11mo ago
        But does SBF have any money?
        • delfinom 11mo ago
          His parents do. He was already a trustfund baby when he started.
          • bmitc 11mo ago
            His parents are retired Stanford professors. Despite their criminal involvement in FTX, that isn't exactly the type of people Trump coddles too.
            • electriclove 11mo ago
              You sure? What else do you know about his parents?
            • overfeed 11mo ago
              Surely, they can't be worse than the Qataris?
• tartuffe78 11mo ago
  It's a good thing Trump is as old as he is. Imagine if a 50 year old had this much influence over his party, could ignore any law, and stole this much money. May I never live to see such a thing happen in the US, but it doesn't feel unlikely.
  • platevoltage 11mo ago
    We better hope JD Vance isn't able to capture the cult of personality after Trump is gone.
    • spprashant 11mo ago
      JD Vance is a great debator, and might appeal to some urban Republic voters. But I don't see him having and away on the rural voters like Trump does.
      • cool_man_bob 11mo ago
        I’m very confused. Rural voters can connect with a dynastic NYC real estate developer, but Vance at least has origins much closer to typical Americans. Is it just media nostalgia? Trump was on the TV shows they liked and so they trust him more?
        • cg5280 11mo ago
          A lot of politicians have tried to replicate Trump’s style with limited success. We could probably debate forever what it is about Trump that makes him unique. I think his crude and abrasive personality won people over; it felt authentic and cathartic. Nowadays I think he has immense inertia.
          • sieep 11mo ago
            I remember hearing a lot of sentiment mid-2010s about how since he was a successful businessman that he will make good decisions in the White House. America was longing for someone that wasn't 'status quo', so to say. I agree with you on the personality side, but I also think his overall fame from TV, real estate, etc. is just as big a factor to his political success.
• metalliqaz 11mo ago
  shameless corruption
  • mandeepj 11mo ago
    I'm not sure why Presidents were given the ability to pardon. Besides corruption, bias, or self-interest, nothing else can come out of it.
    • ImJamal 11mo ago
      Presidents can pardon to provide a check on the courts. If congress doesn't like the pardon they can impeach the president.
    • SR2Z 11mo ago
      It's a consequence of the executive's power to... well, execute the law. They can simply decide to not focus prosecution on certain crimes. If they can do that, why not let them also pardon people?
      • jdlshore 11mo ago
        No, it’s based on English clemency. https://govfacts.org/explainer/the-presidential-pardon-power/ https://govfacts.org/explainer/the-presidential-pardon-power... has a nice explanation of the power and its history.
    • malicka 11mo ago
      Unfortunately, sometimes our judges, juries, and officers are also biased or incorrect; pardons are useful when the delivery of justice was mistaken or excessive.
      • mandeepj 11mo ago
        > pardons are useful when the delivery of justice was mistaken or excessive If you look at a slew of the recent pardons, the beneficiaries had already pleaded guilty. In those cases, the pardons should be ineligible. I think the most a President could do - should be - give defendants the ability to appeal the case to a new judge or jury. It's wrong and should be corrected! Added it to my todo list
• Havoc 11mo ago
  Coffeezilla video about this is up already https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMEJTORMVN4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMEJTORMVN4
  • JKCalhoun 11mo ago
    Holy shit, it runs deep.
    • boringg 11mo ago
      Its so gross.
      • actionfromafar 11mo ago
        [flagged]
  • NaomiLehman 11mo ago
    I can't believe the dominant country is running this timeline.
    • ethbr1 11mo ago
      Give it a few years. The US ceding its dominance by trying to re-follow its 1970s/80s playbook (now with less Volcker!) in a 2024+ world will go down as one of the biggest geopolitical own-goals of all time.
      • Der_Einzige 11mo ago
        If trump were willing to call for extended high interest rates, we’d be in a far better spot. Trump trying to bring them down rapidly is perk of mt stupid especially during rampant speculation in GenAI.
        • tb_technical 11mo ago
• more_corn 11mo ago
  How much did he pay?
  • tartoran 11mo ago
    We don't know but I guess it involved quite a bit of bitcoins
  • ihsw 11mo ago
    [dead]
• bryanlarsen 11mo ago
  In contrast, SBF is still in jail despite being Biden's second biggest donor.
  • potatototoo99 11mo ago
    Give him time, there's plenty of Trump presidency to go.
  • deleted 11mo ago
    [deleted]
  • Hamuko 11mo ago
    I'd say that SBF is a bigger crook in contrast. He gave himself a special privilege to withdraw unlimited funds from FTX.
  • dmix 11mo ago
    SBF was sentenced to 25yrs, Binance guy got 4 months.
    • deleted 11mo ago
      [deleted]
  • kobalsky 11mo ago
    CZ crime was not complying with anti laundering US laws, which basically meant he didn't do KYC to keep USA users out. He got 4 months. SBF stole user funds to basically role play as a billionare.
• a_ba 11mo ago
  It's high time the Republicans embrace their new leadership with a re-branding of their outfit's name and henceforth call themselves The Banana Republicans
• Animats 11mo ago
  I wonder if civil forfeiture will work against Trump once he's out of office. Trump's net worth before becoming President was under US$1 billion. Now it's over 6 billion. A civil claim for the difference based on the Emoluments Acts. "The Foreign Emoluments Clause bars the president and other federal officials from accepting “any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State” without the consent of Congress. It reflects the framers’ desire to prevent federal officials from succumbing to foreign influence. The Domestic Emoluments Clause provides for the president to receive a fixed salary and bars him from receiving “any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.” It was designed to insulate the president against undo pressure from Congress or any individual state." [1] https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/emoluments-clauses-explained https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/emol...
  • almosthere 11mo ago
    [flagged]
    • 98codes 11mo ago
      > Why would we want to? Because crimes should be prosecuted. > Should we do the same to her? Obviously yes. Why would we give a damn? See also: Epstein files & Clinton. Release them, round him & the rest of them up.
    • abuani 11mo ago
      Yeah I agree, we should be holding the ruling class accountable for building generational wealth while average Americans can barely afford basics.
    • Larrikin 11mo ago
      Why not start with the obvious example and collect the whatsbouts during the trial.
    • genter 11mo ago
      Yes. (And I say that as a Democrat in California)
• dreamcompiler 11mo ago
  I'm sure SBF and Elizabeth Holmes will be next.
  • therein 11mo ago
    SBF, maybe. Elizabeth Holmes, no chance.
    • mikkupikku 11mo ago
      You're probably right, because she smoozed with Biden, but with Trump anything is possible with the right bribes.
      • SoftTalker 11mo ago
        Does SBF have any ability to pay a bribe at this point? I suppose one might assume he has some funds stashed offshore somewhere.
        • moomoo11 11mo ago
          The Ivy League colleges should start campus on prisons for their alumni and other inmates who could learn and continue the grift.
        • arandr0x 11mo ago
          His parents might but I don't think they're accepting bribes from Stanford profs. Maybe CZ can advocate for him to have a rival again.
      • cestith 11mo ago
        Is it called a bribe at this point, or is it tribute?
        • I-M-S 11mo ago
          Indulgence might be the most appropriate term.
• doener 11mo ago
  "President Trump has pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the convicted founder of the crypto exchange Binance, following months of efforts by Zhao to boost the Trump family’s own crypto company." You Americans elected a mobster as President.
  • trhway 11mo ago
    I feel there is some perversion happened - the American culture in particular has been strong on a hero cutting through and going across the laws and rules toward his goals (and the recent years super-hero craze is an epitome of it). And i feel that in some perverse way Trump got tuned into such a hero storyline and naturally abusing it to no end for his own gain.
  • nashashmi 11mo ago
    We Americans had our choices robbed of us. And we cannot think outside of the ballot sheet.
    • npteljes 11mo ago
      I agree with you. The system is ridiculous, it gives the voter two options, and that's all. People point out that monopolies are bad, but a duopoly is very far from being a solution for it. Americans (and many other countries in the world) need better representation.
  • _9ptr 11mo ago
    [flagged]
  • computerdork 11mo ago
    Well, half us Americans did:) The other half is still in total disbelief
    • calmworm 11mo ago
      Closer to 20% of Americans did.
    • 11mo ago
• sleepybrett 11mo ago
  You heard it everyone, crime is legal as long as you pay off the Don.
• billfor 11mo ago
  [flagged]
• sleepybrett 11mo ago
  If we ever get trump out of office we need to re-arrest every last one of these guys. The supremes can whine and cry as we keep them in prison. They can raise an army if the want anything different. Serious controls need to be placed around the pardon power.
  • gleenn 11mo ago
    Double Jeopardy is disallowed in the United States, they would have to be convicted on new crimes.
    • drjasonharrison 11mo ago
      So much of what DJT is doing should be disallowed but isn't. So we can disallow them and then add an amendment to reverse all DJT executive orders and pardons. I'm joking! Everything will be broken by then.
    • CuriouslyC 11mo ago
      Name them as terrorists on bullshit nonexistent evidence and disappear them to CECOT. We already know you can get away with it.
      • sleepybrett 11mo ago
        that's for the gravy seals.. i mean ice gestapo. Send them where they sent the largely innocent.
    • Teever 11mo ago
      They most certainly committed other crimes which were uncovered when they were investigated for the crimes that they were charged and now pardoned of. Also as I understand it, while the can't be tried twice for the same crime Federally, it's still possible that they can be tried in a state court for committing the same crime.
  • electriclove 11mo ago
    Just the ones that Trump pardoned right?
• fallinghawks 11mo ago
  It's all transactional. Do something Trump likes, he'll help you, laws, morals, and ethics be damned.
  • tripplyons 11mo ago
    The pardoning of all of over 1000 people involved in January 6th is a good example of this.
    • TheBlight 11mo ago
      [flagged]
      • bmandale 11mo ago
        Is autopen a particular sore point in the US for some reason?
        • TheBlight 11mo ago
          There's a potential implication that the president wasn't the one making the decisions and they were political favors doled out by unnamed and unaccountable staff. If the president felt strongly about that perception he could've signed them himself. But he seemingly didn't.
          • etchalon 11mo ago
            The autopen has been widely used without controversy, including by Trump.
            • gottorf 11mo ago
              The controversy with Biden is that the autopen was allegedly used without the President's knowledge or directive. Nobody has a problem with POTUS's signature getting on a piece of paper without his hand actually holding the pen; that's not the point here.
• daveguy 11mo ago
  At this point, I wouldn't touch crypto with a 10 ft pole. What happens when everyone recognizes that the whole thing has turned into a money laundering grift? Who's going to give you anything for your bozo bucks? At this rate, it's not going to take long.
  • toastgrave 11mo ago
    Hasn't that been apparent for years now though? It's a cool idea but really no real use that doesn't boil down to some sort of crime
    • daveguy 11mo ago
      Yeah, I don't think the dominos will fall until the next flash crash when people realize it takes $100+ just to withdraw (because 7 transactions per second isn't many). As soon as confidence is lost, the reaction will be full blown tulip market. We just haven't seen the first bank run yet. And there is literally no backstop for a crypto bank run.
      • snek_case 11mo ago
        Will definitely be entertaining to watch if it happens.
      • tadfisher 11mo ago
        Oh, there will be runs. If they remove the guardrails keeping crypto out of the regulated financial industry (read: KYC and AML requirements), your bank deposits will absolutely be comingled with toxic crypto assets, because it will be way cheaper to avoid paying compliance people than the transaction fees.
      • mrb 11mo ago
        It doesn't take $100 to transfer. Fees are currently around $1. You are off by a factor 100! Also, Bitcoin can process far more than 7 tps through the Lighting network. I wonder where your misconceptions come from?
• WheatMillington 11mo ago
  It's incredible that American corruption can happen out in the open like this. And this isn't a uniquely Trump phenomena. Political pardons are an amazing thing, and they have been used by presidents for a long time now with extremely little scrutiny and no possibility for repercussions. The executive being able to overrule the judiciary is an absolutely jaw-dropping American institution. So much for checks and balances.
  • cakeday 11mo ago
    [flagged]
  • TheBlight 11mo ago
    There's an argument the prosecution was political. See: https://x.com/balajis/status/1981423831572238856 https://x.com/balajis/status/1981423831572238856
    • nativeit 11mo ago
      Because Trump couldn’t have that!
    • seivan 11mo ago
      [dead]
    • Jweb_Guru 11mo ago
      The prosecution was not political lol, he went out of his way to support money laundering on the Binance platform. The reason he complied with the prosecution and pled guilty rather than try to fight it out in court was that they were able to produce a ton of evidence that he deliberately ignored regulators and regulations designed to prevent money laundering in order to make money off sanctioned groups and criminal organizations using the exchange as a way to circumvent KYC/AML laws. Please don't take what Balaji says about companies he invested in at face value.
      • TheBlight 11mo ago
• dcchambers 11mo ago
  The US is a banana republic now. Absolute joke of an administration.
• seany 11mo ago
  Seems like just nuking the stupid AML rules would be better.
• IshKebab 11mo ago
  What if some criminal blatantly says "I'll give you $1bn if you pardon me" and Trump does it? Is that enough for something to happen? Because it seems like that's the only place we can go from here...
  • fudged71 11mo ago
    The bar is much lower https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/us/politics/trump-pardon-paul-walczak-tax-crimes.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/us/politics/trump-pardon-...
    • nerdponx 11mo ago
      The currency here is loyalty, not USD.
  • covercash 11mo ago
    It's not enough. The only thing that might make a difference will get this comment removed. And we may have even passed the point for that to have an impact.
    • CuriouslyC 11mo ago
      The states are going to start engaging in economic warfare with the federal government before too long.
  • nerdponx 11mo ago
    That would be technically illegal rather than merely repugnant. It would not however be illegal if the criminal dropped a hint in the news that he would donate to, say, a ballroom that was to be named after the president. And even if it were outright illegal, the Supreme Court has now ruled that the president is personally immune from criminal prosecution as long as they claim that their illegal activity was carried out in the course of their presidential duties, and not a personal crime committed on the side. Which leaves congressional impeachment and conviction as the sole recourse against presidential misbehavior. Which becomes a problem when the majority in Congress doesn't care that the president is doing illegal things. We haven't had a constitutional crisis like this since the FDR administration.
• Alifatisk 11mo ago
  I cannot comprehend how half of Americans are fine with this corrupt leader? He even does this bizarre maffia like deals out in the open for his own interest, that's how confident he is no one will say anything The message is clear from his circus administration, you can do anything as long as you bribe them
  • bityard 11mo ago
    [flagged]
    • n3storm 11mo ago
      In many parts of Europe a couple of strikes would have taken place. Usans are numb or has no social conscience and muscle.
      • smt88 11mo ago
        We inspired the French revolution and had a 7-million-person protest this past weekend.
      • viciousvoxel 11mo ago
        There was a No Kings protest just a few days ago, millions of people across nearly every state demonstrated against the administration.
      • nobody9999 11mo ago
        >In many parts of Europe a couple of strikes would have taken place. Usans are numb or has no social conscience and muscle. Americans are not numb. And we have both of those things, or at least most of us do. What we don't have are strong unions. Less than 10% of American workers are union members. What's more, for as long as there have been unionization efforts in the US (150+ years), the forces of corporations, aided by the government -- to this day -- have suppressed those efforts -- for a long time, brutally and fatally -- and such suppression (although generally not with clubs and guns these days) continues, often with government support. As such, even a "general strike" would have minimal effect, as many union members are forbidden by law to strike (in various jurisdictions, police, fire departments and others). The vast majority of US workers are "at will" workers whose employment can be terminated at any time, for any (or no) reason. Workers can do so just the same as employers, so it's definitely fair! More than half of Americans can't afford an unexpected $USD600 expense. As such, how many do you expect to essentially quit their jobs (possibly multiple jobs) to join a "general strike"? Labor and unions don't work in the US the same way they do in say, Iceland, Sweden, Denmark and other countries with high levels of unionization[0] As much as I'd love to see repeated "general strikes" in the US, protesting the anti-democratic (small 'd') assaults on the rule of law, freedom of expression and due process, given the state of organized labor in the US, that's just not going to happen. As such, we organize where we can and mobilize widely. As the pain comes, more and more of folks will begin to see the problem. I hope it won't come too late. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_comparisons_of_trade_unions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_comparisons_of_t...
• deleted 11mo ago
  [deleted]
• seydor 11mo ago
  I don't get the hate. He served 4 months for a laundering case , and has built the most successful exchange. There are bankers and vcs doing far worse things. He deserved the pardon , and no, he doesn't control bitcoin
• LightBug1 11mo ago
  Well, considering the incredible service Zhao has brought to the American people, this is totally understandable. /$
  • drak0n1c 11mo ago
    He was convicted for allowing US citizens to sign up and place trades that could theoretically be matched by people from sanctioned countries. Technically an incredibly bad service for American people who must be protected from such liberties.
• carnufex 11mo ago
  I mean is it any different than Joe Biden given blanket pardons hundreds of people for crimes that they may have committed over a 10 year span?
  • odo1242 11mo ago
    Yes
  • bobro 11mo ago
    Is it? What do you think?
    • carnufex 11mo ago
      I dont agree with the pardoning just making a point that presidents have done this for a long time of pardoning controversial people. Democrats and republicans are both corrupt so it isnt suprising.
  • thinkharderdev 11mo ago
    Yes
  • lostdog 11mo ago
    Yes
  • BaconPackets 11mo ago
    This is such a weird redirect. Biden seems to have pardoned a large amount of low level marijuana offenders. So yes, there is a difference between what Trump is doing and what Biden is doing.
    • carnufex 11mo ago
      You missed what I stated, pardoning someone for a specific crime vs what biden(if he was actually doing it) pardoned his son for all crimes he may have done over a 10 year span. Oh wait, that was actually one of the only pardons he actually signed. edit: He actually pardoned 5 family members for all non-violent offenses from jan 2014 to jan 2025, does 1 billionaire = 5 biden family members?
• kbd 11mo ago
  The pardon power has been so abused these past few administrations that it's clear there should be constitutional changes in the pardon power, either congressional review, or strip it altogether.
  • apstls 11mo ago
    Genuinely curious: what were the abuses by the Biden and Obama administrations?
    • TiredOfLife 11mo ago
      Biden promised not to pardon his son and then pardoned his son. And not simply pardoned. Pardoned also for crimes not yet discovered
      • jaapz 11mo ago
        Wasn't that because there was a high chance of trump going after biden's son when he was in power, making up whatever charges he needed just as a power play?
        • davidguetta 11mo ago
          no one should be above the law. Also it's not like the democrat did not weaponize the justice to put trump in jail for 4 consecutive years.
          • hypeatei 11mo ago
            No one at the top faced consequences for January 6th because Merrick Garland slow-rolled everything. How was the DOJ weaponized by Biden?
          • ethbr1 11mo ago
            > Also it's not like the democrat did not weaponize the justice to put trump in jail for 4 consecutive years. Trump went to jail? News to me.
• JumpinJack_Cash 11mo ago
  A part of me despises this orange guy, another part is thankful that he is there as a proof that you can get to a high status and high relevance role in society and still mantain your humanity, your inner child alive, not being robotic and just have a blast doing whatever the f you want. There is no point getting to the top if you then lose all your humanity and playfulness. Like if the condition to become President were to become a robot like Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden, thanks no, I pass....Trump on the other hand is the best of both worlds.
  • doener 11mo ago
    I see child, I don‘t see humanity.
    • JumpinJack_Cash 11mo ago
      They are synonymous really.
  • deathanatos 11mo ago
    > and still mantain your humanity I am getting Poe's Law'd … right? He's sending people to concentration camps & bombing boats in the Caribbean and Pacific. He's deported American children. Treatment of asylum seekers, treatment of immigrant's children, wanton discrimination against minority groups… Humanity? Playfulness?
  • cestith 11mo ago
    I’m not sure he’s maintained his humanity by maintaining his playfulness with the very lives of people being his playthings.
  • bena 11mo ago
    I don't say this lightly and I understand that it's neither a thorough nor an explicit question, however, I mean this in all seriousness: What the fuck?
  • moogly 11mo ago
    That is a strange way to spell "malignant narcissism".
• martythemaniak 11mo ago
  COLLINS: Today you pardoned the founded of Binance. Can you explain why you did that? TRUMP: Which one was that? COLLINS: The founder of Binance TRUMP: I believe we're talking about the same person, because I do pardon a lot of people. I don't know. He was recommended by a lot of people. https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3m3v6mnpkb52i https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3m3v6mnpkb52i
  • fxwin 11mo ago
    actual puppet
  • hshdhdhehd 11mo ago
    Fuck. Guys. Psst. You have another demented leader.
  • deleted 11mo ago
    [deleted]
  • annexrichmond 11mo ago
    I agree this isn't a very satisfying answer, but realistically how else do you expect Presidential pardons to go? Trump has pardoned over 1000 people and Joe Biden has pardoned over 4000. Do we expect them to know the intricate details of every single case? And I mean, wasn't the last Administration effectively Autopen? Yes, the President receives recommendations and tries to make the best judgement on those. What would Biden's answer be for pardoning Fauci?
    • deleted 11mo ago
      [deleted]
    • cosmicgadget 11mo ago
      > What would Biden's answer be for pardoning Fauci? Leticia James. Lisa Cook. James Comey. Also he didn't break any laws? > Trump has pardoned over 1000 people and Joe Biden has pardoned over 4000. The numbers don't really mean much when it's pardoning classes of people (marijuana convictions, insurrectionists, etc.).
• deleted 11mo ago
  [deleted]
• flipfluck 11mo ago
  Are we great again?
• wnevets 11mo ago
  This Administration loves criminals.
  • tartoran 11mo ago
    This Administration is criminals.
    • edmundsauto 11mo ago
      This Administration loves itself.
      • tartoran 11mo ago
        I could rephrase then: This Administration is narcissistic criminals.
• rts_cts 11mo ago
  I'm not sure it will be a problem for Changpeng Zhao but let's say I was convicted of a felony in the US, served time in prison and then was pardoned by the president. What would my employment prospects be in comparison to someone who didn't receive a pardon?
  • tokioyoyo 11mo ago
    “You must have very good connections and network, definitely a good hire for the future.”
  • Calavar 11mo ago
    Likely bad because the conviction will still show up in background checks. (A pardon doesn't entail expungement.) As you said, this won't be an issue for CZ because he's not going to be looking for the kinds of positions where HR screens the resumes
• hshdhdhehd 11mo ago
  Poor drug dealers: Extrajudicial murder in international waters. Rich drug dealers: Freedom. Be a rich drug dealer.
  • captainkrtek 11mo ago
    More generically: Poor criminal: jail/death penalty/etc. Rich criminal: freedom
    • paulryanrogers 11mo ago
      Famous and rich criminal: the presidency
  • charcircuit 11mo ago
    CZ already paid a fine and finished serving his time in jail. He was already free before the pardon.
    • paulryanrogers 11mo ago
      Wasn't he barred from working in financial services? I imagine a full pardon would remove any pesky details that might stand in the way.
  • harrisi 11mo ago
    Is there any proof that any of the Venezuelan boats were drug dealers? Any proof in court, ideally?
    • enraged_camel 11mo ago
      There is not.
    • nailer 11mo ago
      Submarines generally aren’t fishing.
• miohtama 11mo ago
  For the accurate context: CZ was pardoned for a single charge of failure to have an effective compliance program. No fraud, no victims, no criminal history. No money laundering. CZ is the first and only known first-time offender in U.S. history to receive a prison sentence for this single, non-fraud-related charge. The judge found no evidence that he knew of any illicit transactions and that it was reasonable for him to believe there were no illicit funds on the platform. Trump is a very twisted person, and this makes the US look bad, but the underlying crime was "compliance."
  • guywithahat 11mo ago
    [flagged]
    • ganksalot 11mo ago
      then you know nothing at all about the case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMEJTORMVN4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMEJTORMVN4
      • anigbrowl 11mo ago
        I wish you would link to text rather than video. This channel owner may be very well informed, but I don't want to subject myself to the performative yelping of some guy sitting in front of a smoke machine with mood lighting. Except where original footage is concerned, video is about the worst medium for communicating complex facts the sensory stimulation is a distraction from the content. This presenter might be a genius, but I don't want to spend the time trying to untangle the substance from his hyped-up 'coffeezilla' delivery.
        • wyre 11mo ago
          I had Claude reformat youtube's transcript of the video. --- # Trump's Pardon of CZ: A Timeline of Alleged Corruption *Author's Note:* This situation represents what appears to be straight-up corruption that everyone should oppose, regardless of political affiliation. This isn't about politics—it's about the facts. ## Background: The Original Charges *November 21, 2023* Binance and Changpeng Zhao (CZ) both plead guilty in a historic $4 billion plea deal. They admitted to lacking proper anti-money laundering controls and willfully looking the other way. The charges specifically involved allowing terrorists, cyber criminals, and child abusers to use their platform. *April 30, 2024* CZ is officially sentenced to four months in prison. ## The Trump Connection Begins Shortly after sentencing, Donald Trump wins the presidency and announces the launch of *World Liberty Financial*—his major crypto project. This will become crucial to understanding the alleged corruption. ## The Suspicious Timeline ### March 12, 2025: The MGX Investment A company called MGX invests $2 billion into Binance, specifically in cryptocurrency (the exact type wasn't announced initially). ### March 13, 2025: The Wall Street Journal Report The Wall Street Journal reports that Binance has been reaching out to Trump allies since the previous year to strike a business deal with the family as part of a plan to return to the US. Possibilities included: - The Trumps taking a stake in Binance - A deal through World Liberty Financial ### March 25, 2025: USD1 Stablecoin Launch World Liberty Financial announces a stablecoin called USD1. *Why stablecoins matter:* They're incredibly profitable because they farm yield from treasury bills while people use them. The major players are USDT and USDC. However, it's extremely difficult to launch a new stablecoin—people don't trust or use new ones easily. ### May 1, 2025: The Key Revelation The $2 billion MGX investment into Binance was conducted entirely in *USD1* (Trump's stablecoin). *Why this matters:* - There was no reason to use USD1 instead of other currencies - They could have used BNB (Binance's own coin), which would make more sense - The only reason to use USD1 is to benefit World Liberty Financial - Stablecoins are backed by treasuries, so holding $2 billion in USD1 generates *$60-80 million per year* in risk-free revenue for World Liberty Financial (from 3-4% treasury yields) ### A Few Days Later CZ announces he has applied for a Trump pardon. *Timing: right after announcing the deal was done in USD1.* ### June 2025 World Liberty Financial announces a partnership with PancakeSwap (associated with Binance) and a $1 million reward trading campaign to increase USD1 usage. ## The AI Chips Connection ### September 15, 2025: New York Times Investigation The New York Times reveals suspicious timing around the MGX investment: 1. MGX deposited $2 billion into World Liberty Financial 2. Two weeks later, the White House agreed to allow the UAE access to hundreds of thousands of advanced AI chips 3. Many chips would go to G42, controlled by the same sheikh connected to MGX *Official response:* The deal was "totally unrelated to any government business." But MGX clearly benefited from one side of this arrangement. ## The Polymarket Betting ### October 11, 2025 A whale linked to suspicious insider trading activity on Hyperliquid was connected to a Polymarket account called "big winner 01." This account started betting that Trump would pardon CZ by the end of 2025—a seemingly wild bet with only a couple months left in the year. ## The Pardon ### October 23, 2025 Trump pardons convicted Binance founder CZ. *White House response:* Press Secretary Caroline Levitt claimed Trump "exercised his constitutional authority" and that CZ was "prosecuted by the Biden administration and their war on cryptocurrency." *The reality:* The charges had nothing to do with politics. They were about anti-money laundering violations and allowing money to flow to criminals. Binance's own chief compliance officer had internal chats noting they should probably not allow money to Iran, North Korea, Syria, Cuba, and Crimea. The Wall Street Journal reported the pardon will likely pave the way for Binance to return to the US. ## The Bottom Line The problem isn't just loosening crypto enforcement—it's making the president's family such obvious beneficiaries: - Nearly all of USD1's success came from this inorganic $2 billion investment - The market cap spike for USD1 directly corresponds to the Binance deal - It's a clear pay-to-play scheme happening in plain sight *The author's conclusion:* This appears to be blatant corruption where deals were made to profit from the pardon, regardless of one's political views.
• jmspring 11mo ago
  Of course he did. Republicans can’t complain about Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich any more.
  • robinhoode 11mo ago
    Of course they can. Republicans (well MAGA in particular) don't are about hypocracy. They make exceptions for Trump on everything.
  • jmull 11mo ago
    I mean, that was one pardon 25 years ago and widely criticized across the political spectrum. It's hard to count how many purely political and money-based pardons Trump has done this term, and there is essentially no pushback on his side.
  • elicash 11mo ago
    I was aware of the allegations that Marc Rich's ex wife gave money to Clinton ($450k to the library) is what led Clinton to pardon, but I never really dug into it. Per wikipedia, Clinton's defense was that it was actually a favor to Israel, given Rich helping to finance their intel services. Maybe everybody else knew this, I didn't.
    • jmspring 11mo ago
      I’ve read the same, I can’t see any net benefit here aside from grift. I mean, in all honesty, if our system is going to allow the grift and one is amoral enough to do so, have at it. It may catch backup later.
• nextworddev 11mo ago
  seems like not enough anger in this thread is directed at CZ
• netfortius 11mo ago
  Unpopular opinion: America needs/ed this. They nerve truly believed that a Ceaușescu, Hitler, Stalin, Mao were possible in the US. Maybe one or two generations will suffer, but this is a required lesson, for the future maturity of the nation, long term. Assuming they come out in one piece at the other end, of course.
  • pedroma 11mo ago
    You believe the US on the path to killing tens of millions of its own citizens for the sake of some ideology like Mao, Stalin, and Hitler because a non-violent white collar criminal was given a shortened sentence? Interesting.
    • LunaSea 11mo ago
      You can kill someone without weapons. And just like the Great Leap Forward, America is well on its way to letting many thousands die from lack of healthcare.
      • deleted 11mo ago
        [deleted]
      • pedroma 11mo ago
        By that criteria, Obama would be one of the greatest mass murderers in history.
    • anigbrowl 11mo ago
      [flagged]
      • deleted 11mo ago
        [deleted]
      • deleted 11mo ago
        [deleted]
    • wyre 11mo ago
• 1970-01-01 11mo ago
  Good news: This shows they absolutely need any and all money they can get. Bad news: They are getting the kickback money.
  • malfist 11mo ago
    Does it? Trump famously cashed a 17¢ check
• _jsmh 11mo ago
  Words and sentences can easily be misconstrued in threads like these. I truly want to know of a better way to have discussions on a topic of this importance.
  • chris_wot 11mo ago
    Don't let Trump pardon anyone? People are outraged because it is outrageous.
    • jayd16 11mo ago
      Or better yet, prosecute corruption.
      • deleted 11mo ago
        [deleted]
      • _jsmh 11mo ago
        [dead]
    • _jsmh 11mo ago
      Can you imagine positive reasons why the pardon wouldn't be outrageous? This might be a more thought-provoking question. Is there no nuisance to this pardon?
      • chris_wot 11mo ago
        No, I cannot think of any positive reasons for the pardon. He rightfully should be in jail.
    • deleted 11mo ago
      [deleted]
• fogzen 11mo ago
  Better headline: Convicted criminal Trump pardons convicted criminal Binance founder
  • wiredpancake 11mo ago
    [dead]
• LunaSea 11mo ago
  Crime is legal
• hmate9 11mo ago
  I’m sure it’s pure coincidence that the Trump family made millions from Binance, CZ, and donations from Trevor Milton and Paul Walczak right before those pardons.
• locallost 11mo ago
  At least the FBI director broke the big news in crime fighting today, how a couple black basketball players were arrested for sports betting.
  • cosmicgadget 11mo ago
    It is amazing this investigation went forward during a shutdown.
• dmitrygr 11mo ago
  Pardon count per president: President Count -------------------------------- Joe Biden ~8,064 | Donald Trump ~237 | Barack Obama ~1,927 | George W. Bush ~200 | Bill Clinton ~459 | George H.W. Bush ~77 |
  • qingcharles 11mo ago
    Even if the numbers were correct, the numbers are absolutely no use without context, except perhaps to allow partisan mud-slinging on Twitter. Biden pardoned thousands of non-violent low-level marijuana convictions, which is why the numbers look like that. Trump pardoned a large number of violent protesters.
  • BaconPackets 11mo ago
    This is meaningless without context.
    • righthand 11mo ago
      Not attacking you but using your message to say to anyone reading: Is there a lesson here about what our AI future looks like? The OG thread comment is using summarized information to induce anxiety. When everyone has a 'suped-up AI bot running around the net for them, how much more noise like this is there going to be? How many people will have armies?
  • anigbrowl 11mo ago
    Don't come here and lie. You almost doubled the number for Joe Biden (the vast majority of which were pardons for simple possession of marijuana) while omitting the extremely well-known fact that Trump pardoned ~1500 people who were convicted for offenses committed on January 6, thus deflating his total by >80%. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_pardoned_or_granted_clemency_by_the_president_of_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_pardoned_or_gra...
  • edot 11mo ago
    Median net worth of pardonees? 6500 of Biden’s are for marijuana offenses. Not exactly corruption there.
• W0lfEagle 11mo ago
  Seems not right
• kevin_thibedeau 11mo ago
  Just wait until the blanket pardon comes out for all of his staff.
• insane_dreamer 11mo ago
  The USA is officially a banana republic.
• deadbabe 11mo ago
  The only way to get around the pardon power being abused is to punish crimes by death, quickly and on the spot.
  • paulryanrogers 11mo ago
    Can't we just amend the constitution to remove pardon power? Or at least shift it to Congress?
    • deadbabe 11mo ago
      Maybe we can just ignore it entirely. Laws don’t matter.
• MrToadMan 11mo ago
  The swamp is now a protected wetland.
• casey2 11mo ago
  Even more depressing reading the comments that think this hasn't always been the case. It's red guy, it's blue guy, no it's orange guy facepalm
• LatteLazy 11mo ago
  Unpopular opinion: the case against him/binance was always that as a non us citizen, outside the us, he failed to obey US law and in a paperwork and licensing sense not a violent or otherwise serious manner. I don’t like trump. But “CZ” basically paid a ransom to let Binance come in from the cold. Why shouldn’t he pay another to get a clean slate and maybe go back to being CEO?
• moneycantbuy 11mo ago
  our culture is ill
• annexrichmond 11mo ago
  It feels like HN is slowly turning into reddit with the comment section becoming mostly snide remarks Instead of just commenting about being dismayed with the state of things, how about step back and speculate as to why he did this pardon, and what the implications of it are. I don't know the answer to either, but I surely didn't learn much from what used to be an insightful, intelligent crowd
  • deleted 11mo ago
    [deleted]
  • telchior 11mo ago
    You're being downvoted but I get where you're coming from. The dismay is from not needing to speculate, wonder or theorize about why he did this pardon. It's a quid pro quo pardon for helping the Trump family make billions of dollars in under a year using the office of the president. The corruption is entirely flagrant and open. Yeah, it's a forum of smart people, but none of those smarts are oriented to dealing with this kind of problem. There's a system but it's non-functional, laws but they're ignored, the tools are raw political and social power. It's going to take a while to figure out what to say and do about the slide from normal, functioning democracy into semi-theocratic banana republic.
  • wyre 11mo ago
    I don't think we need to speculate much. He did the pardon because CZ bribed him with a lot of money. The implications are that Trump will keep abusing his power to keep receiving bribes.
  • strathmeyer 11mo ago
    [dead]
• TacticalCoder 11mo ago
  [dead]
• BLKNSLVR 11mo ago
  Is white collar crime / financial fraud just not going to be a crime in the US any more?
  • cosmicgadget 11mo ago
    Depends, are you voting to keep interest rates where they are? Are you a DA who successfully prosecuted the president?
  • rglover 11mo ago
    As always, that depends on how much you're already worth.
    • tartoran 11mo ago
      Maximum sentence allotted for small fries and lenience for the bigger conman who share a piece of their own pie to clean the slate. Fair game in Crookville.
  • danans 11mo ago
    That already officially happened a few months ago. In addition to stopping all cryptocurrency fraud investigations, the administration stopped prosecuting white collar crimes under the FCPA: https://www.connecticutcriminallawyer.com/blog/trump-administration-scales-back-enforcement-of-white-collar-crimes https://www.connecticutcriminallawyer.com/blog/trump-adminis... If you have access to people in positions of government influence, it's a good time to accept bribes from foreigners, especially via cryptocurrency. But if that is you then you probably already know that.
    • hrimfaxi 11mo ago
      > If you have access to people in positions of government influence, it's a good time to accept bribes from foreigners, FCPA addresses bribery of foreign governments...
      • danans 11mo ago
• yalogin 11mo ago
  If one leaves all integrity and morals the president of the richest country in the world can really amass a ton of wealth. I actually suspect that the shares the “US” government s getting from intel and other companies actually goes to trump somehow. Everything is up for sale with this administration. Just sad, the high moral ground the country occupied is just wiped out and it’s now just like any other corrupt Asian country
  • danans 11mo ago
    > and it’s now just like any other corrupt Asian country Seems like we are getting the worst aspects of countries like China (anti-democratic 1 party rule, state directed oligarchy, targeting of ethnic minority groups) with none of the best aspects of China: strong investment in education, research, and modern infrastructure like high speed trains and zero carbon electricity production. Maybe mimicking authoritarianism isn't the answer to our problems.
  • Aspos 11mo ago
    Hey, corruption is rampant on each and every continent, except Antarctica. Asia is not the worst by far. Why are you singling out Asia specifically?
• noisy_boy 11mo ago
  There should be a limit on the number of pardons a president can do during their tenure so that they have to at least think a bit before using it. It is a very powerful tool that actually allows a last resort. But this kind of egregious abuse of it's power means it needs to be kept in check.
  • cosmicgadget 11mo ago
    It'd take a constitutional amendment. So all we can do is not elect someone who will trade pardons for money (on this scale).
    • estearum 11mo ago
      Eh, or the next POTUS can just drone strike whoever has been pardoned by the previous one. Immune for official acts and all that.
      • DoctorOW 11mo ago
        I remember there being an article in The Onion or something similar "Supreme Court grants presidency complete immunity; dies in drone strike."
  • Terr_ 11mo ago
    > There should be a limit There is, and the Constitution says the limit is impeachment and removal from office by Congress. That won't happen unless we fix how we talk about the ones responsible, to wit: The Republican Party pardoned these criminals. The Republican Party is snatching Americans off the streets. The Republican Party is using the military to murder people on boats. The Republican Party is demolishing down the White House. The Republican Party is deporting people over free speech. The Republican Party has imposed the biggest tax increase in living memory with tariffs/import-taxes. The Republican Party is going pay itself your tax dollars in "lawsuit settlements". There were 4 years of his first term and now 10 months of... all this. Today there is zero possibility of an oversight or mistake, any legislator who won't impeach and convict is choosing to support these things. Nothing will improve while those legislators believe the blame will sail past them and stick solely to Trump.
• Ankaios 11mo ago
  If you have Republican senators or a Republican House rep, call their offices and tell them what you think of this.
  • khazhoux 11mo ago
    Yes! This will be the time they finally push back on Trump.
    • amanaplanacanal 11mo ago
      Midterms are coming up next year. If they are afraid their association with Trump might take them down, they'll crack. Honestly I suspect fear of Trump is really their only motivation right now.
      • deleted 11mo ago
        [deleted]
      • bobthepanda 11mo ago
        So long as most of these states have party primaries, particularly closed party primaries, it doesn't really matter because anyone insufficiently pro-Trump is getting primaried hard.
        • amanaplanacanal 11mo ago
          They still have to face competition in the general though. If Republican voters are disgusted enough, they might vote for a Democrat, but they are more likely to stay home and just not vote. Which could be enough for them to lose their seats.
          • toomanyrichies 11mo ago
            > If Republican voters are disgusted enough If Republican voters were capable of being disgusted enough, it would have happened by now.
• khazhoux 11mo ago
  Genuine question: If one wanted to get in on the Trump grift, and had no moral qualms, how would you do it? Can you come up with a realistic fast path to snag, say, $5 million within 2 years from Trumpland?
  • CamperBob2 11mo ago
    I don't think the direct approach to Trump or his inner circle would be ideal, considering how crowded the field of professional grifters and griefers surrounding him is. You'd really have to stand out to get noticed. But they've recently lost a key connection to the broader MAGA youth movement. A quick-witted young person with good public-speaking skills and a psychopath's morals could step into that role without much difficulty, perhaps acting as a bundler for GOP political contributions that could then be skimmed. The retirement plan sure sucks, though. And you wouldn't want to be too overt about it, or you'd risk ending up like Steve Bannon. It may also be possible to get in with the Girardist movement associated with Peter Thiel and J. D. Vance. A few weeks' intensive study would likely allow you to sling eschatological BS with the best of them. You'd get paid on the lecture circuit, again following the trail blazed by Charlie Kirk, spreading the good news about mimetic theory and the bad news about Greta Thunberg. Then there's the covert approach. Karl Rove has long since quit the field, Lee Atwater is dead, and Roger Stone isn't getting any younger. There's always money on the table if you're willing to do what the other guy won't. Trouble is, there are plenty of people willing to do anything for Trump, now that the rewards have become so transparently obvious. The same question keeps coming up... in a field full of seasoned crooks, what can new talent do to get noticed by the right people and overlooked by the rest?
    • khazhoux 11mo ago
      Dude, that's a lot of work. I don't think any of us can become the next Charlie Kirk just to ride a quick drift. It's gotta be more low-effort and high-confidence. I'm thinking more like: incorporate a company with a mission of "Providing AI without woke bias." The product would be simply GPT-OSS behind a system prompt of "You are a Fox News host" and a simple guardrail, wraped in a generic web and mobile UI. It'd be a couple of days of vibe coding and setting up AWS backend. Now, how do you legally funnel a few million into your pockets from that?
• ajdlinux 11mo ago
  It's bizarre to me, an Australian, how the pardon power is used in the US. Our federal, state and territory executive governments all have a pardon power, inherited from English law, that is, formally, unlimited (like the US federally and indeed it's less restrictive than many US states for state crimes). It is a power used very sparingly, even though legally it is unlimited - the state of New South Wales is, as far as I know, the only one which publishes details about uses of the pardon power; in an average year there are 0 successful pardon/commutation applicants, and it's an exceptionally merciful year if they grant 2 or more. Other states and the federal government may or may not be a bit more generous, but we're talking very small numbers. Most pardons are for reasons of unsafe convictions where for whatever reason no remaining avenues of appeal are available (rare, these days, because each state has introduced laws to enable post-conviction reviews). Historically, particularly in the 19th century convict era, the pardon power was much more important, and was indeed abused for political reasons on a number of occasions, but it seems that for the most part it quietly exists in the background and only gets significant public attention once every blue moon for a high-profile murder case or similar. What explains the difference? Is it the requirement for sign-off by the King's viceroys that prevents abuse? Collective Cabinet governance that is accountable to Parliament? Maybe our political culture means politicians' friends tend to end up in prison less often and thus there's less opportunity for the abuse of pardons specifically? It's not particularly clear to me - if anyone's got some good comparative studies send me links!
  • isaacremuant 11mo ago
    As an Australian? Dude, your country is the most authoritarian of the current English speaking "western" countries. The parliamentary countries like Australia just have made it so that they forever encroach in civil liberties and hide it all in bureocracy and pretend things work as intended and that democracy is working but when it was covid time they utterly crashed dissent. Same with most cases of effective opposition to power. The first in line to try and control the internet, speech and more from its citizens who don't even notice it that much because it's so ingrained in the culture of self censorship. Having said that, yes, the pardon powers are ridiculous and they're being used more and more in ridiculous ways like this one from trump or the "pardon for everything just in case, for future and past" from Biden.
• usisdoomed 11mo ago
  So the lesson is that if you have enough money to buy US president, you can buy freedom
• burnt-resistor 11mo ago
  Pedophile felon destroys takes a wrecking ball to half of the White House without saving historical materials or objects, furiously pardons all sorts of crooks and fraudsters, and talks about not getting into heaven. Sounds like an admission of 6-8 months left to live.
• refurb 11mo ago
  Wait, this guy was already out of prison? From what I read he was fined $50M and 4 months in prison. So the pardon only removes the criminal conviction? It has zero impact on the time he served. This doesn’t seemed like the outrageous situation from reading comments.
• deleted 11mo ago
  [deleted]
• Tade0 11mo ago
  Conservatives around the world seem to be comparing notes because over here the now former president pardoned quite a few high-profile cases and at least one before the sentence was given, which was bizarre, as you can't do that and the president, holding a PhD in law, should have known this. In any case it appears that not only funds are safu, but Zhao is safu as well.
• hedayet 11mo ago
  > Pardon follows months of efforts by Changpeng Zhao to boost the Trump crypto company How is this not outright corruption?
  • remify 11mo ago
    It is and you'll not doing much against it
• ghtbircshotbe 11mo ago
  I am having trouble understanding the rational for these pardons. The best I can come up with is that they've decided that there is literally nothing that would cause them to lose the support of Republican voters, and the actions are being instigated by right wing trolls.
• stunt 11mo ago
  We are allowing this to happen. For so many years corrupt politicians have avoided any consequences so it grows and becomes new normal. Market manipulation has been the norm for many years because nobody did anything to stop it. Pardoning criminals is becoming the new normal. Next normal is going to be launching wars to distract public and is going to cost a lot of lives.
• Bombthecat 11mo ago
  As the sub on Reddit would go: I voted for this! Idiots... They see as a positive thing or just ignore it
• thr0waway001 11mo ago
  See you guys later on the ‘Trump pardons Diddy’ thread.
• _jsmh 11mo ago
  The administration says CZ wasn't guilty and was persecuted by the previous administration. https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/1981457002921677059 https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/1981457002921677059