Trump pardons convicted Binance founder • Hacker News Board

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#361

Post by HDThoreaun » Thu, Oct 23, 2025, 9:21 PM UTC

smt88 wrote: post #313

froggertoaster wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, Trump voter here. I'm NOT fine with this.

People are going to pile on you for not seeing this coming, but I really do appreciate your ability to change your mind and tell people about it. People need space to make a U-turn. I hope you get some grace because it's a lot easier to say "I told you so" than "I was wrong."

> People need space to make a U-turn

The problem is we dont believe him. There has been ample time to make a u turn. A decade at this point. Trump has never shied away from his corruption. He has been upfront about his intentions from the beginning. I just do not believe that this is the straw that broke the camels back when so many straws have come before.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#362

Post by kapone » Thu, Oct 23, 2025, 9:21 PM UTC

bena wrote: post #306

McP wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Biden pardoned several family members

Yeah, because he was guarding them against the current administration abusing the Justice Department to go after them. Same reason he pardoned Fauci and others. And from what we've seen, he was right to do so. Although, they've been angling to declare his pardons void so they can go after whoever they wish.

> Yeah, because he was guarding them against the current administration abusing the Justice Department to go after them

Ha ha. They (democrats overall) need to look inwards for that.

> Same reason he pardoned Fauci and others. Fauci screwed up our country so bad, it aint even funny. The fact that he needed a PRE-EMPTIVE (i.e. he wasn't even accused of anything at the time) pardon says it all. And the fact that Biden gave it to him, says everything there is to say about Biden.

> And from what we've seen, he was right to do so. Not even close.

> Although, they've been angling to declare his pardons void so they can go after whoever they wish. They should.

- Look at what Biden did to the southern border. And look at it now. - Look at almost any "democrat" run major city. Any. Then look at the crime rates and cost of living. - And the recent farce that was this "No Kings" crap...

Trump isn't perfect. Far from it. He's got major flaws, both in character and execution. However, name any major policy initiative that he's undertaken that is bad for the "country". As a whole.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#363

Post by the_gastropod » Thu, Oct 23, 2025, 9:21 PM UTC

TheBlight wrote: post #281

the_gastropod wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes. Pardoning folks who were imprisoned for possession of marijuana is exactly the same--worse even, because "autopen"--as pardoning folks who were imprisoned for insurrection / political violence in support of the guy doing the pardoning. Very smart take.

No one was imprisoned for "insurrection." The vast majority were charged only with entering restricted grounds.

18 were charged with seditious conspiracy. Over 500 were charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers. And many more were still awaiting trial, including Daniel Ball, who was accused of throwing explosives at police officers, were also pardoned by Trump. Many of these pardoned individuals have gone on to commit further felonies, including Daniel Ball, who was just arrested for plotting to murder Hakeem Jeffries.

But again, you seem to be missing the point: a president pardoning people who support him is very different than pardoning ordinary people who were imprisoned for crimes that are no longer crimes.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#364

Post by dylan604 » Thu, Oct 23, 2025, 9:21 PM UTC

jbmchuck wrote: post #308

moralestapia wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No chance SBF ever goes out (until he's done with his sentence). Two huge factors against him: * Most people don't even know who CZ is, so this is meh-tier. People know SBF and find him repulsive, literally. Whoever puts SBF out of jail will face a massive PR backslash, he's not important enough to be worth that. * SBF stole from the rich, the only real crime in the US. Very few times you see someone who is equally h…

Regarding your first point - how about George Santos? I suspect Santos was more well known than any of the crypto-scammers, was clearly guilty, was derided by both ends if the political spectrum - yet Trump commuted him.

Commute != pardon. Santos is still convicted and guilty of all of those charges. He just doesn't have to serve the rest of the sentence. I'm not sure if those were felony charges, but if they were and he's in a state that doesn't allow felons to vote...

A pardon makes it all go away. None of the baggage of convictions follow. Finding a job or a place to live is something they can do, as well as voting again.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#365

Post by tdb7893 » Thu, Oct 23, 2025, 9:22 PM UTC

returningfory2 wrote: post #279

adgjlsfhk1 wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Nope, Biden pardoning his son was also widely condemned across the political spectrum as an abuse of the pardon power.

I was against the Biden pardons at the time but in hindsight with the current administration pushing poorly done prosecutions for political purposes I have changed my mind on them. Trump will say his pardons are similar but looking at the facts I don't find them comparable (I'm still livid that he pardoned Blagojevich, who was literally caught on tape talking about selling a US Senate seat).

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#366

Post by kbd » Thu, Oct 23, 2025, 9:22 PM UTC

thinkharderdev wrote: post #322

adgjlsfhk1 wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Trump is definitely the most egregious by a very wide margin, but the pardon power has been abused by every President in my lifetime. It's a truly insane feature of our constitution that needs to be changed.

It doesn't really matter who is more egregious, but IMO a country's leader pardoning his own family members is about as banana republic as it gets.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#367

Post by Conscat » Thu, Oct 23, 2025, 9:22 PM UTC

mig39 wrote: post #342

kbd wrote: post #233

The pardon power has been so abused these past few administrations that it's clear there should be constitutional changes in the pardon power, either congressional review, or strip it altogether.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism Sounds reasonable. This is ok for Trump to do because of Hunter Biden.

The Hunter Biden pardon was necessary because it was clear that despite his admission of guilt, he was not going to receive a fair punishment. The Republican party leadership was very open in expressing their intentions for him, and had _already_ circumvented the judicial system to give him cruel and unusual punishment.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#368

Post by tadfisher » Thu, Oct 23, 2025, 9:22 PM UTC

RandallBrown wrote: post #267

leptons wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally do not know any Americans that are as you described. 1/3 of Americans are as you describe, 1/3 are definitely not at all as you described, and another 1/3 is too apathetic to care about anything. The recent "No Kings" protests were the largest in US history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_protests_and_demonstra...

> 1/3 is too apathetic to care about anything I think at least some of that 1/3 has their own problems that prevent them from being able to devote energy to politics

This is measured via election participation, so a confounding factor is the recent uptick in voter suppression tactics; these tactics are employed most visibly in states with large minority populations (e.g. states in the Deep South).

These tactics include: consolidating polling places in urban areas; restricting the ability to submit an absentee ballot or otherwise vote by mail; restricting early voting; voter ID laws; and "poll watchers" who intimidate those at polling places, sometimes illegally.

Moreover, those forced to vote in-person at polling places are not given time off from employment to do so. This overwhelmingly disenfranchises the working class, who just so happen to overwhelmingly vote for progressive policies that favor the working class over the middle/upper classes.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#369

Post by cthalupa » Thu, Oct 23, 2025, 9:22 PM UTC

TheBlight wrote: post #250

Jweb_Guru wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The prosecution was not political lol, he went out of his way to support money laundering on the Binance platform. The reason he complied with the prosecution and pled guilty rather than try to fight it out in court was that they were able to produce a ton of evidence that he deliberately ignored regulators and regulations designed to prevent money laundering in order to make money off sanctioned groups and criminal…

Balaji was the former CTO of a rival company. Wouldn't he be incentivized to not support CZ?

No. He had the same financial incentives to not want to have to worry about the BSA and dealing with AML etc. as CZ.

This is not a company vs. company sort of issue, this is a "I want to avoid regulations that would cost me money as a fundamental aspect of my industry " issue.

If Coinbase thought they could legally not worry about all of this, do you think they would want to deal with it?

The sheer quantity of money used in cryptocurrency for money laundering and activity where traditional payment processors will not accept payments (largely illegal, e.g. drugs, counterfeit goods) also means that the keeping the ecosystem healthy involves having ways for this money to flow.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#370

Post by collingreen » Thu, Oct 23, 2025, 9:22 PM UTC

mig39 wrote: post #342

kbd wrote: post #233

The pardon power has been so abused these past few administrations that it's clear there should be constitutional changes in the pardon power, either congressional review, or strip it altogether.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism Sounds reasonable. This is ok for Trump to do because of Hunter Biden.

Would be nice if Trump only pardoned people who the incoming administration explicitly said they would target, after years of constant harassment and misinformation.

I think I would support those pardons even though I think Trump and his family and his cronies are acting the way really bad people act.

Taking the above scenario as license to sell pardons for person gain is such a stretch it looks like bad faith to me.