Binance’s CZ Considers Defamation Action Against Senator Warren: Report

Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) plans to file a defamation suit against Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren for alleged defamation, according to the New York Post. reported.

This is after the senator criticized US President Donald Trump’s decision to pardon the crypto billionaire last week.

“CZ pleaded guilty to a criminal charge of money laundering and was sentenced to prison,” Warren said in a statement. Message shortly after the confirmation of the grace. “But then he financed President Trump’s stablecoin and lobbied for a pardon. Today he got it. If Congress doesn’t end this type of corruption, he owns it.”

Warren and Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff also introduced a resolution condemning the move and calling on Congress to “use its authority to end this form of corruption.”

CZ did not plead guilty to money laundering

CZ’s action is allegedly based on the fact that he was not convicted of money laundering, as Warren claims, but of violating the Bank Secrecy Act for failing to implement appropriate controls against possible illicit financial activities on Binance.

The New York Post article states that attorney Teresa Goody Guillen, on behalf of CZ, will ask Senator Warren to retract her statement. Without a formal retraction, Guillen said his client plans to file a defamation lawsuit imminently.

“Mr. Zhao will not remain silent while a U.S. senator appears to abuse his office to repeatedly issue defamatory statements impugning his reputation,” CZ’s lawyer wrote in a draft letter the newspaper said it had seen. “Accordingly, Mr. Zhao respectfully and immediately requests the removal of these false statements, both in the resolution and on X.”

“Mr. Zhao reserves the right to pursue all available legal remedies to remedy these misrepresentations,” Guillen added.

In an earlier response to Sen. Warren’s X post, Guillen said such defamatory statements are only a form of protected speech when made on the Senate floor, not in a public space such as a social media platform.

It is worth remembering Hutchinson v. Proxmire, 443 US 111 (1979). The speech or debate clause protects legislative debates/acts, not false or misleading information. The court ruled that the clause does not protect the transmission of allegedly defamatory content in press releases and…

– Teresa Goody Guillén (@teresagoody) October 24, 2025

Guillen reiterated that there were “no accusations of money laundering.”

An X community note was added to Senator Warren’s X post. “CZ pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act for failing to implement an effective anti-money laundering program. He did not plead guilty to money laundering,” the memo said.

Trump-Binance Connections

Binance has listed the stablecoin USD1, which is a token created by a Trump-backed DeFi platform called World Liberty Financial. Most recently, the leading cryptocurrency exchange also listed the project’s native WLFI token and has the highest trading volume around the token of any current WLFI marketplace.

Binance has the highest trading volume for WLFI (Source: CoinMarketCap)

For this reason, Warren and other politicians argued that Trump’s pardon of CZ was inappropriate. A.Representatives for CZ and Trump reportedly denied this, arguing that the president’s family’s ties to CZ’s operations were incidental.

Related articles:

Best Wallet – Diversify your crypto portfolio

• Easy-to-use, feature-driven crypto wallet
• Get Early Access to Upcoming Token ICOs
• Multi-chain, multi-wallet, non-custodial
• Now on App Store, Google Play
• Stake to win a $BEST native token
• More than 250,000 active users per month