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Fox News demanded that presidents know whom they pardoned. Then Trump said he didn’t know the crypto tycoon he pardoned.

Fox News has spent 1 hour and 23 minutes discussing Biden’s use of the autopen while airing only 3 minutes of coverage on Trump's pardon of founder of Binance. Trump claimed on 60 Minutes that he knew “nothing about” the pardon.

Written by Jane Lee & Isabella Corrao

Research contributions from Harrison Ray & Rob Savillo

Published

In a highly anticipated interview on 60 Minutes, President Donald Trump claimed that he knew “nothing about” the pardon of Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange with ties to his sons’ cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial. Trump also said that he didn’t know who Zhao was; that he knew Zhao “got a four-month sentence or something like that”; and that he “heard it was a Biden witch hunt."

You might think that this story would be catnip for Fox News, which heavily attacked Joe Biden’s use of the autopen to sign pardons in his final months in office, accusing the former president of being unaware of who he pardoned. Some network personalities even argued that it was grounds to invalidate Biden’s pardons. Yet, since October 22 through the morning of November 6, Fox News has spent 1 hour and 23 minutes discussing Biden’s use of the autopen while airing only 3 minutes of coverage on Zhao’s pardon.

Those 3 minutes of coverage entailed a brief bit on the network’s comedy show Gutfeld! in which a network personality said that Trump’s remark was “my favorite answer ever,” and a segment in which White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich acknowledged that Trump’s remarks received attention because “the president has argued Joe Biden’s pardons should be void because he didn’t know about them."

Meanwhile, Fox contributor Guy Benson remarked on social media, “If we care about Biden’s autopen scandal on pardons and commutations (we should), shouldn’t this answer from POTUS on this set of facts draw scrutiny and concern?”

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  • Trump claimed he knows “nothing” about the Binance CEO he pardoned

    • Binance’s founder and chief executive officer, Changpeng Zhao, pleaded guilty in 2023 to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program. Then-acting U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman for the Western District of Washington said in a press release at the time that “because Changpeng Zhao knowingly operated a financial platform without basic anti-money laundering safeguards, the company caused illegal transactions between U.S. users and users in sanctioned jurisdictions such as Iran, Cuba, Syria, and Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine — transactions for which Binance profited with significant fees.” As The New York Times reported at the time, Treasury officials also said that “Binance had failed to institute programs to report suspicious transactions involving terrorist groups — including Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Al Qaeda and ISIS.” [Department of Justice, 11/21/23; The New York Times, 11/21/23]
    • After Zhao became a key supporter of the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial cryptocurrency venture, Trump pardoned him. Discussing the pardon, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “the Biden Administration’s war on crypto is over.” Bloomberg has reported that Binance is linked to the Trump family’s World Liberty Finance venture in “multiple ways.” The Wall Street Journal reported that “around the time of the election, Zhao’s representatives began discussions with allies of Trump, saying they wanted to find a solution to Binance’s legal troubles in the U.S. and offering a deal with a Trump family business, according to people familiar with the discussions. Once Trump won, Binance formed a high-level task force to strike a deal with the Trumps’ nascent cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial, that Binance could leverage into clemency for Zhao, other people familiar with the matter said. This spring, Binance took steps that catapulted the Trump family venture’s new stablecoin product, enhancing its credibility and pushing its market capitalization up from $127 million to over $2.1 billion.” [The Wall Street Journal, 10/23/25, 10/29/25; Bloomberg, 11/3/25]
    • During the 60 Minutes interview, Trump indicated he did not know much about why Zhao was pardoned: “I don't know who he is.” Trump told the program that, “Well, here's the thing, I know nothing about it because I'm too busy,” and adding, “I know he got a four-month sentence or something like that. And I heard it was a Biden witch hunt." Trump also said: “I can only tell you this. My sons are into it. I'm glad they are, because it's probably a great industry, crypto. I think it's good. You know, they're running a business, they're not in government.” [CBS News, 11/3/25]
    • 60 Minutes reportedly cut Trump being asked about the “appearance of corruption” with regards to the pardon. Axios reported that the extended video posted online removed a question from interviewer Norah O'Donnell about “the appearance of corruption.” Axios also reported that the program did not include Trump's reply: “I can't say, because — I can't say — I'm not concerned. I don't — I'd rather not have you ask the question.” [Axios, 11/3/25]

  • Fox News has repeatedly accused Biden of not knowing who he pardoned, and suggested that such pardons would be invalid

    • Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo on Biden’s pardons: “Joe Biden did not sign them, but more importantly he did not know anything about them.” She asked, “Who was controlling the autopen?” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 3/17/25] 
    • Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich: “When it comes to signing of pardons, the legality of that is now on the table in terms of questioning if the president didn't know why they were being signed and who they were for, are they even valid?” [Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, 6/11/25] 
    • Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade questioned if Biden knew about the pardons: “That's why we want to find out who was making the decisions and you have to wonder about the thousands of pardons at the last minute, does he even know about it?” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 6/26/25] 
    • Article III Project founder and Fox News guest Mike Davis: “The president needs to know who he is pardoning and President Biden admitted that he didn't even know who he was pardoning.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 7/14/25]
    • Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett said, “Biden recently admitted unwittingly that he did not approve each individual pardon.” He mentioned a White House aide “reportedly testifying she had no idea who in Biden's inner circle gave her permission to use the autopen; it wasn’t Joe Biden.” [Fox News, Hannity, 7/16/25]
    • Fox News host Sean Hannity: “It appears he didn’t sign all the documents himself. Now, oftentimes, his team used an autopen instead. It raises an obvious question. How do we know that Biden actually approved all the actions that his name was officially signed to? The answer is, we do not know.” [Fox News, Hannity, 9/5/25]
    • Fox News host Greg Gutfeld: “New emails revealed Biden officials privately expressed concern that controversial pardons granted in the final months of his presidency and questioned if sleepy Joe even knew about them. Sure sounds like it could be one of the great scandals of our time.” Co-host Jesse Watters added, “Biden said he knew their names. He didn’t know any of their names, and even his people said he knew no one's names.” [Fox News, The Five, 9/8/25]
    • On Hannity, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said, “There are real questions whether Joe Biden had any awareness what he was doing, had any awareness the criteria that were being laid out, and whether he made the specific decisions and Sean, if he didn’t make the specific decisions, those individuals are not pardoned, their sentences are not commuted.” [Fox News, Hannity, 9/8/25]
    • Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt: “It's illegal — only the president is allowed to make these pardons and give approval for that. If it turns out he doesn't know who he was pardoning and he didn't give permission, that is not legal. You can't have unelected people deciding who gets pardoned. It has to be the president of the United States.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 10/29/25]
    • Fox News host Will Cain: “According to leaked emails allegedly between Biden's top staffers, Biden didn’t review some of these clemency decisions.” He elaborated, “Sources told Axios it was a mad dash to find groups of people that he could then pardon, and then they didn’t largely run it by the Justice Department to vet those commutations.” [Fox News, The Will Cain Show, 10/30/25] 

  • Fox News has barely mentioned Trump’s admission about being unaware and has barely covered the Binance pardon at all, while still frequently discussing prior use of the autopen

    • Fox News contributor and radio host Guy Benson: “If we care about Biden’s autopen scandal on pardons and commutations (we should), shouldn’t this answer from POTUS on this set of facts draw scrutiny and concern? Oversight shouldn’t be selectively partisan and reflexively tribal, by either side.” [Twitter/X, 11/3/25]

    • Fox News has continued to cover the Biden autopen investigation extensively after the pardon of Zhao, with the network dedicating at least 1 hour and 23 minutes of coverage to the scandal since October 22. 
    • Fox News has barely mentioned Trump’s remark about being unaware and has barely covered the Binance pardon at all, with only 3 minutes of coverage discussing the pardon on the network.
    • On October 4, Fox White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich noted that the clip from 60 Minutes “got a lot of attention in part because the president has argued Joe Biden’s pardons should be void because he didn’t know about them.” [Fox News, Special Report with Bret Baier, 11/4/25]
    • The only other mention of Trump’s remark on air was from network personality Tom Shillue, who said on the network’s comedy show Gutfeld! that Trump’s remark was “my favorite answer ever.” Mediaite noted that the “only other moment the instance came up” was during “a roll back of The View’s mockery on Hannity. Trump’s comments went unaddressed by guest Lawrence Jones, who slammed the ABC hosts’ commentary as ‘slanderous.’” [Mediaite, 11/4/25]

  • Methodology

  • Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on Fox News Channel for any of the terms “Binance,” “Bytedance,” “Changpeng” (including misspellings), “Zhao” (including misspellings), “USD1,” “Crypto,” “CZ,” or “World Liberty Financial” from October 22, when President Donald Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, through 10 a.m. E.T. on November 6, 2025.

    We also searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on Fox News Channel for either of the terms “Trump” or “president” within close proximity of the term “pardon” from October 22, 2025, through 10 a.m. E.T. on November 6, 2025.

    Finally, we searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on Fox News Channel for either of the terms “autopen” or “auto pen” from October 22, 2025, through 10 a.m. E.T. on November 6, 2025.

    We timed segments, which we defined as instances when either President Donald Trump's pardon of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao or the accusations condemning former President Joe Biden's pardons for using an autopen was the stated topic of discussion or when we found significant discussion of either story. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multi-topic segment discussed either story with one another.

    We also timed mentions, which we defined as instances when a single speaker in a segment about another topic mentioned either story without another speaker in the segment engaging with the comment, and teasers, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host promoted a segment about either story scheduled to air later in the broadcast.

    We rounded all times to the nearest minute.