‘I Don’t Know Who He Is’: After Ridiculing Biden’s ‘Autopen Pardons,’ Johnson Shrugs Off Trump’s Clemency for Crypto Billionaire

Speaker Mike Johnson — a staunch critic of President Biden’s use of the autopen to sign pardons — is declining to comment on President Trump’s admission that he pardoned a cryptocurrency billionaire without knowing who the man is. The tycoon in question, Changpeng Zhao, began campaigning for a pardon after his company started doing business with Mr. Trump’s children. During an interview with CBS News’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday, the president was pressed about why he pardoned Mr. Zhao. His firm Binance was disclosed to be behind a trading platform that helped boost a cryptocurrency coin launched by two of Mr. Trump’s sons, Don Jr. and Eric. The president himself is estimated to have increased his net worth by billions of dollars just this year due to his investments in cryptocurrency. “Are you ready? I don’t know who he is,” Mr. Trump told “60 Minutes” host Norah O’Donnell on Sunday. “I heard it was a Biden witch-hunt.” Mr. Zhao pleaded guilty in 2023 to one charge related to Binance’s role in facilitating transactions for terrorists and other criminals. He was released from prison in 2024 after serving a four-month sentence. “I know nothing about it,” Mr. Trump insisted. “I can only tell you this: my sons are into it. I’m glad they are because it’s probably a great industry — crypto.”The president’s lack of knowledge about the pardon seems to fly in the face of congressional Republicans’ demand that Mr. Biden’s pardons — many of which were signed using an autopen — be investigated and potentially invalidated. Never in history has a president’s pardon power been restricted. Last week, Mr. Johnson stood alongside fellow Republican leaders in Congress to call on the pardons and executive actions to be voided if they were done so without Mr. Biden’s knowledge. “Oversight [Committee] chairman James Comer released a blockbuster report … on the Biden autopen presidency,” Mr. Johnson said on Wednesday. “Every executive action signed by the autopen without written authorization from President Biden should be voided. This is an unprecedented situation in American politics and government.”“The actions of President Biden simply were not his own actions, and there are major implications to that, including all the pardons that he signed,” Mr. Johnson told reporters. In response, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced she was investigating whether or not Mr. Biden’s pardons were, in fact, valid. Mr. Johnson had little to say about Mr. Trump’s own pardon of Mr. Zhao, however, even though the president said he was completely unaware of the situation when he signed the clemency. “I don’t know anything about that,” Mr. Johnson said on Monday when asked about the pardon for Mr. Zhao and Mr. Trump’s insistence that he knew nothing about him. “I didn’t see the interview. You’ll have to ask the president about that. I’m not sure.”

‘I Don’t Know Who He Is’: After Ridiculing Biden’s ‘Autopen Pardons,’ Johnson Shrugs Off Trump’s Clemency for Crypto Billionaire

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