Crypto billionaire Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who was pardoned by President Donald Trump last week, is considering a libel suit against Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) after she incorrectly stated that he was convicted of money laundering on social media. 

“CZ pleaded guilty to a criminal money laundering charge and was sentenced to prison. But then he financed President Trump’s stable coin and lobbied for a pardon. Today, he got it. If Congress does not stop this kind of corruption, it owns it," Warren posted on X immediately after the pardon on Thursday.

But what Warren said wasn't true: Zhao was convicted of violating the Bank Secrecy Act because he didn't have controls in place to prevent nefarious activity while he was running crypto company Binance.

Zhao resigned from Binance as part of his plea deal with the DOJ.

"Defamatory statements"

Zhao's lawyer  Teresa Goody Guillen said he was preparing a letter to Warren demanding she retract her statement.

“Mr. Zhao will not remain silent while a United States Senator seemingly misuses the office to repeatedly publish defamatory statements that impugn his reputation,” Goody Guillen wrote in a draft letter reviewed by The Post. “Accordingly, Mr. Zhao respectfully immediately requests the retraction of these false statements, both within the resolution and on X… Mr. Zhao reserves his right to pursue all legal remedies available to address these false statements.”

But Warren didn't stop at slandering Zhao on social media, she also joined Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) on Tuesday to introduce a resolution in the chamber condemning the pardon of Zhao and calling on Congress to “use its authority to stop this form of corruption.”

Trump pardoned Zhao after he spent four months in jail and paid a $50 million fine; it's not that he did anything corrupt, he just didn't do due diligence to prevent money laundering as the Bank Secrecy Act required.

Overzealous prosecution?

Trump looked at Zhao's prosecution as overzealous on the part of the Biden administration and wanted to right what he saw as a wrong, the New York Post reported before the pardon last week.

But the criticism Trump has received noted that his family could benefit from the pardon as they try to build their crypo business, simply because Zhao is such a huge player in the industry.

Defenders say the connections between the two are incidental, such as investors using Trump's World Liberty Financial stablecoins to buy an interest in Binance.

Zhao's pardon clears the way for him to return to Binance, where he is still the largest shareholder.

Certainly, there is a lot less evidence that Zhao is personally enriching Trump than there was that former President Joe Biden was taking payoffs from foreign business leaders. So there's that.