CZ threatens Warren with defamation suit

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren posted on X, saying Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao helped fund Donald Trump’s stablecoin and asked for a pardon. Zhao’s lawyer claims the allegations are false, and the founder plans to sue the senator. 

Zhao’s lawyer, Teresa Goody Guillen, is writing a letter asking Warren to take down her post on X or face a lawsuit. 

CZ’s lawyer asks Warren to remove her false post and issue a retraction

Senator Elizabeth Warren posted on X and stated that the court convicted Zhao of money laundering, but his lawyer, Teresa Goody Guillen, claims that’s not true. She says Warren’s post will spread false information that will hurt the founder’s name and reputation. 

According to Guillen, Zhao only pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act, not to money laundering. He already served his four months in jail and paid a $50 million fine as per his plea deal. 

Warren made her comments after President Donald Trump pardoned Zhao, but Goody Guillen said the founder will not remain silent while a senator tarnishes his name. She said she has written a formal letter demanding that the senator take down her post and correct her words on social media and in Congress. If she doesn’t, Zhao will sue her.

Additionally, the lawyer stated that lawmakers like Warren cannot use their positions of power to make false statements and escape accountability. She explained that the Speech or Debate Clause in the U.S. Constitution only covers actions and comments made inside Congress, not public statements or social media posts.

Finally, Zhao’s legal team claims that Warren sought to portray his pardon as an act of corruption and to attack both Zhao and Trump simultaneously. Goody Guillen said this case should remind politicians that truth matters and they should not use their power to spread misinformation. 

Warren stands by her comments and attacks Trump’s pardon decision

In response to Goody Guillen’s warning, Senator Elizabeth Warren stood by her comments. She said she wasn’t trying to insult or attack CZ, but rather question why President Donald Trump pardoned him. She wanted to know whether personal or political interests backed that decision. 

According to the Senator, Congress should take action to stop what she described as “this kind of corruption” before lawmakers become part of the problem. Her post garnered millions of reactions, and some people praised her for speaking out against what they saw as another example of Trump misusing his presidential powers to benefit his allies. Others, however, accused her of spreading false information and unfairly damaging Zhao’s reputation.

Warren’s post received a community note correction on X. The note made clear that Zhao’s offense was related to weak company compliance, rather than personal involvement in moving or hiding dirty money. This correction led many people to change their views about Warren’s statement on CZ, and they immediately began accusing her of spreading false information. 

The senator did not comment on the possible lawsuit but said that Zhao “pleaded guilty to violating the law” and that she was “calling him out for what he did.” She was not backing down and saw it as her duty to hold powerful figures accountable in such situations.

A larger national debate ensued on social media following Trump’s pardon of Zhao. The president openly criticised digital currencies during his first term. But he has suddenly changed his stance completely and now promotes it publicly. What’s even worse is that his family is largely involved and has even launched a digital asset company called World Liberty Financial.

People close to Zhao say that he has no personal or business relationship with Trump or his family, and that Binance has never partnered with World Liberty Financial in any official capacity. According to them, the two are only linked by individual investors who happen to use Trump’s stablecoin to buy or trade assets connected to Binance’s platform.

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