CZ killed FTX, FTX was a democrat funding source, SBF went to jail, so they went after CZ harder as punishment. Binance is certainly not clean, but the case wouldn't have been prosecuted as aggressively if CZ hadn't been largely responsible for FTX going in the shitter.
"Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) played a key role in the collapse of FTX by announcing his company would sell its FTT tokens, which triggered a bank run and led to FTX's failure. After this event, Binance and FTX entered into a preliminary agreement for Binance to acquire FTX, but the deal fell through once Binance examined FTX's financials. Subsequently, FTX filed a lawsuit against Binance and CZ. "
11/04/25: --- "Incredibly, Trump told 60 Minutes, 'I don’t know who he is' and, in regard to his family’s financial connection to Binance, 'I know nothing about it.' " ---
What's TRULY incredible is that the "naive" Eric Salzman expects Trump:
To give Norah O'Donnell, failed "news actress" --- whose utterly corrupt employer, CBS, was recently forced to settle out of court and pay Trump millions of dollars after committing wholesale fraud (60 Minutes Kamala Harris interview) --- a straight answer.
Where's Eric Salzman's "outrage" column about the Biden Auto-Pen pardons? Avidly waiting for someone to post a link to that one...
It takes a corrupt businessman to fix the country. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but things are getting much better for the middle class and after four ruinous years of Dr. Demento this is as good as it gets.
People who are invested, big and small, are doing better for now. Everyone else, not so much. Even 51% of Republicans don’t like his handling of tariffs. It doesn’t matter what Dems think because whatever he does they are against it. He just went TACO with China (actually a good thing) because people living paycheck to paycheck are hurting and may not turn out for the GOP come the midterms. Just say’n.
You're not going to stop the shenanigans with a spotlight. You'll simply induce more denials than usual. The key risk with Trump (much more so than the MAGA leaders who will follow like Vance, Rubio, Ramaswamy, etc) is corruption and "taking financial advantage" that is within the law.
There is going to be lots of that and to people of conscience it's quite bad.
But the people as a whole have seen much worse, and will be mostly uncaring. Nobody actually gave a crap about Iran-Contra in the end, while it was the biggest scandal in the world if you asked anyone at the time. If you're about to look up which President that had to do with, that proves my point.
Trump will be slightly corrupt and take financial advantage, but he'll be remembered for other things.
CZ wasn't any dirtier than most crypto pioneers. If Gensler's SEC had published rules and brought crypto onshore, CZ said he would have complied.
He played the game with the minimal rules that were in place and wasn't legally required to do more, but was prosecuted anyway. I'm no fan of his actions, but I'm even less of a fan of the kind of regulation by prosecution as practiced by Gensler.
The Trump boys shouldn't have associated with him, no question that looks bad.
Wasn't the Trump Organization basically frozen out of the banking system? Not because they couldn't repay loans, but because of their politics?
It's just hard for me to get upset about this when crimes that are far more consequential to the good of America get glossed over. It does sound like it was selective prosecution.
11/04/25: "Wasn't the Trump Organization basically frozen out of the banking system? Not because they couldn't repay loans, but because of their politics?"
That they were. They were "de-banked." Avidly waiting on Salzman to post his "expose" column About "Trump Debanked" (I must have missed it. Salzman must have written one, no?).
Whether this is dirty has no bearing on whether he cares for the people, nor does "caring" have much bearing on whether he's actually good for the people.
Lmao some of y’all really need to get Trumps dick out of your mouth. It’s ok to admit he sucks and is just like all other politicians who do a lot of shady stuff.
Edit:
Nice edit to change your comment and remove the TDS nonsense.
Elizabeth Warren stepped out of the 2020 race in exchange for a deal that her ghouls would occupy the White House in the Biden Admin. They punched the lights out of people in the crypto industry. CZ took a plea, I think, to avoid a toxic Biden prosecution. Chokepoint 2.0 was real. I agree with the comment that CZ tanked FTX and SBF, and they were going to come for him. Stop trying to make this about a pay to play and take the time to understand how grim Chokepoint 2.0 really was and who got caught up in it.
The entire banking industry and especially the opaque crypto world are all guilty, on a daily basis, of committing a litany of financial crimes, big and small, laundering every bad guys dough imaginable around and around the world, and incalculable acts of fraud.
Every now and again, they throw a sacrificial Lamb on the altar just for appearance’s sake, only to give them an escape hatch later.
Dog bites man. Nothing new to see here. Move along.
A strong well written piece Eric, thank you. I continually have to remind myself that Trump's victory was due to the fact that he was the least worst option. This will create quite a splash in the GOP punch bowl.
Matt, you’re way off base here. Binance was never greenlit to do business in the US until late in 2024. Lizzie Warren was using her power to do Biden’s bidding here with Chokepoint 2.0. Lizzie bankrupted Silicon Valley bank when it was liquid and did the same with Metropolitan bank. She’s a POS and should be in prison. The wall st journal needs some education into how blockchain works too. This is a big nothing burger. Let’s not feign outrage here especially over something 90% of the US doesn’t understand. I’ve been investing in crypto now for well over 5 years and there is no illegality here.
Pardons were definitely a mistake, and they have been administered in a pretty loose way, too. Need a constitutional amendment to just get rid of them.
Cops need absolute power to be dicks during an arrest because anything else and the criminals are calling the shots. The abuses of that power don't mean you remove the power.
Presidents need the ability to pardon because the justice system can be abused in a political way. However, it creates the ability for the pardon to be used politically or for personal/party benefit. That's unfortunately a necessary evil because the alternative, wide misuse of the DoJ for political reasons, is worse.
Better for some guilty ones to skate free than for innocents to face political persecution.
Hard for me to get outraged over failing to implement an anti-money laundering program. I think the most egregious in the minds of those who prosecuted, was not flauting the regulation, but the lack of respect for the regulators.
CZ killed FTX, FTX was a democrat funding source, SBF went to jail, so they went after CZ harder as punishment. Binance is certainly not clean, but the case wouldn't have been prosecuted as aggressively if CZ hadn't been largely responsible for FTX going in the shitter.
"Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) played a key role in the collapse of FTX by announcing his company would sell its FTT tokens, which triggered a bank run and led to FTX's failure. After this event, Binance and FTX entered into a preliminary agreement for Binance to acquire FTX, but the deal fell through once Binance examined FTX's financials. Subsequently, FTX filed a lawsuit against Binance and CZ. "
11/04/25: --- "Incredibly, Trump told 60 Minutes, 'I don’t know who he is' and, in regard to his family’s financial connection to Binance, 'I know nothing about it.' " ---
What's TRULY incredible is that the "naive" Eric Salzman expects Trump:
To give Norah O'Donnell, failed "news actress" --- whose utterly corrupt employer, CBS, was recently forced to settle out of court and pay Trump millions of dollars after committing wholesale fraud (60 Minutes Kamala Harris interview) --- a straight answer.
Where's Eric Salzman's "outrage" column about the Biden Auto-Pen pardons? Avidly waiting for someone to post a link to that one...
Quite interesting
Donald is not afraid to openly use his office to personally enrich himself.
That makes him like 95% of the politicians in the world.
The only difference is the "openly" part.
Keep the spotlight on and hopefully prevent any more blatant shenanigans. This administration is doing too much good work to let them go wayward.
It takes a corrupt businessman to fix the country. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but things are getting much better for the middle class and after four ruinous years of Dr. Demento this is as good as it gets.
People who are invested, big and small, are doing better for now. Everyone else, not so much. Even 51% of Republicans don’t like his handling of tariffs. It doesn’t matter what Dems think because whatever he does they are against it. He just went TACO with China (actually a good thing) because people living paycheck to paycheck are hurting and may not turn out for the GOP come the midterms. Just say’n.
You should read Salena Zito's reporting and think about how blue collar workers in Pennsylvania are doing.
You're not going to stop the shenanigans with a spotlight. You'll simply induce more denials than usual. The key risk with Trump (much more so than the MAGA leaders who will follow like Vance, Rubio, Ramaswamy, etc) is corruption and "taking financial advantage" that is within the law.
There is going to be lots of that and to people of conscience it's quite bad.
But the people as a whole have seen much worse, and will be mostly uncaring. Nobody actually gave a crap about Iran-Contra in the end, while it was the biggest scandal in the world if you asked anyone at the time. If you're about to look up which President that had to do with, that proves my point.
Trump will be slightly corrupt and take financial advantage, but he'll be remembered for other things.
CZ wasn't any dirtier than most crypto pioneers. If Gensler's SEC had published rules and brought crypto onshore, CZ said he would have complied.
He played the game with the minimal rules that were in place and wasn't legally required to do more, but was prosecuted anyway. I'm no fan of his actions, but I'm even less of a fan of the kind of regulation by prosecution as practiced by Gensler.
The Trump boys shouldn't have associated with him, no question that looks bad.
I think it's the selective outrage that people are objecting to.
Wasn't the Trump Organization basically frozen out of the banking system? Not because they couldn't repay loans, but because of their politics?
It's just hard for me to get upset about this when crimes that are far more consequential to the good of America get glossed over. It does sound like it was selective prosecution.
11/04/25: "Wasn't the Trump Organization basically frozen out of the banking system? Not because they couldn't repay loans, but because of their politics?"
That they were. They were "de-banked." Avidly waiting on Salzman to post his "expose" column About "Trump Debanked" (I must have missed it. Salzman must have written one, no?).
What-aboutism, I’d say.
About as blatantly corrupt as a pardon could possibly be. Yet people still are delusional enough to think Trump cares about the people lol.
Whether this is dirty has no bearing on whether he cares for the people, nor does "caring" have much bearing on whether he's actually good for the people.
Remember the Devils Candy
After all the lawfare, what credibility does any Biden DOJ prosecution have?
Lmao some of y’all really need to get Trumps dick out of your mouth. It’s ok to admit he sucks and is just like all other politicians who do a lot of shady stuff.
Edit:
Nice edit to change your comment and remove the TDS nonsense.
"some of y’all really need to get Trumps dick out of your mouth"
Yeah, no TDS there.🙄
You make a good point about the Biden lawfare, but Eric Salzman wrote this. I assume Matt greenlighted it.
Who’d be left inside the Beltway if the rule of law was upheld? I’ll wait for the explanation of his inexplicable comment. Should be entertaining.
It’s always fun to watch administration spokesmen (and women) come up with convoluted rationalizations for their bosses.
Elizabeth Warren stepped out of the 2020 race in exchange for a deal that her ghouls would occupy the White House in the Biden Admin. They punched the lights out of people in the crypto industry. CZ took a plea, I think, to avoid a toxic Biden prosecution. Chokepoint 2.0 was real. I agree with the comment that CZ tanked FTX and SBF, and they were going to come for him. Stop trying to make this about a pay to play and take the time to understand how grim Chokepoint 2.0 really was and who got caught up in it.
The entire banking industry and especially the opaque crypto world are all guilty, on a daily basis, of committing a litany of financial crimes, big and small, laundering every bad guys dough imaginable around and around the world, and incalculable acts of fraud.
Every now and again, they throw a sacrificial Lamb on the altar just for appearance’s sake, only to give them an escape hatch later.
Dog bites man. Nothing new to see here. Move along.
It’s a club and we’re not in it.
🛎️🔨
A strong well written piece Eric, thank you. I continually have to remind myself that Trump's victory was due to the fact that he was the least worst option. This will create quite a splash in the GOP punch bowl.
One corrupt administration after another. I guess the Executive needs to keep up with Congress.
Just like Trump said
Hillary not changing the tax laws cause all her friends are using the same loophole
this couldn’t be dirtier.
Matt, you’re way off base here. Binance was never greenlit to do business in the US until late in 2024. Lizzie Warren was using her power to do Biden’s bidding here with Chokepoint 2.0. Lizzie bankrupted Silicon Valley bank when it was liquid and did the same with Metropolitan bank. She’s a POS and should be in prison. The wall st journal needs some education into how blockchain works too. This is a big nothing burger. Let’s not feign outrage here especially over something 90% of the US doesn’t understand. I’ve been investing in crypto now for well over 5 years and there is no illegality here.
If Trump really doesn't know who he pardoned, it sounds like the autopen continues to hum away on autopilot in the White House.
Why do we have pardons at all? It undermines the justice system and is completely arbitrary, as this case shows.
Pardons were definitely a mistake, and they have been administered in a pretty loose way, too. Need a constitutional amendment to just get rid of them.
Is that right? I didn’t know it was part of the constitution.
Yep, it’s in there, Article II, Sec II:
… he shall have Power
to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States,….
Cops need absolute power to be dicks during an arrest because anything else and the criminals are calling the shots. The abuses of that power don't mean you remove the power.
Presidents need the ability to pardon because the justice system can be abused in a political way. However, it creates the ability for the pardon to be used politically or for personal/party benefit. That's unfortunately a necessary evil because the alternative, wide misuse of the DoJ for political reasons, is worse.
Better for some guilty ones to skate free than for innocents to face political persecution.
It’s ironic that all the news articles about CZ’s pardon call him Canadian. He’s as Canadian as the British Viceroy to India was Indian.
If you have money, you can be the citizen of whatever country you choose.
Hard for me to get outraged over failing to implement an anti-money laundering program. I think the most egregious in the minds of those who prosecuted, was not flauting the regulation, but the lack of respect for the regulators.