Is WLFI the Financial Epstein Files? The Last Two Minutes of Trumps 60 Minutes Interview, Might be the Most Important.
Firebrand Investigation Follow Up
Firebrands and new readers alike,
Trump’s 60 Minutes interview was one of the most significant events in recent weeks. I am shocked anyone put him in front of a Camera for that long, and more so after reading the entire transcript of the interview. His cognitive state is truly regressed rapidly; the media has sanitized him to a large degree. His cadence, constant buffering, and repetition were normalized by constant exposure.
However, something about reading his answers highlights just how out of touch the man is. After reading the entire thing in its entirety, I will be the first to say that you don’t need to subject yourself to such a task.
Whilst he rambles about Nuclear testing, and crafts his own reality where Russia and China are testing nuclear warheads like crazy, he makes entirely baseless claims that there is no Inflation, and Biden Blames at least ten times.
There is no part of that interview more significant than the last several minutes. It is in these last several minutes that we see an honest Trump; some may disagree with me, but I will let you draw your own conclusions.
Below, I will include the last several minutes of the 60 Minutes interview transcript, and then we can unpack it together.
NORAH O’DONNELL: Do I have the opportunity to ask you two more questions?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: If you want, if it helps--
NORAH O’DONNELL: Okay. Okay. Two more questions--
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: That means they’ll treat me more fairly if I do-- I want to get-- It’s very nice, yeah. Now is good. Okay. Uh, oh. These might be the ones I didn’t want. I don’t know. Okay, go ahead.
NORAH O’DONNELL: Is everybody ready?
NORAH O’DONNELL: This is a question about pardons. The Trump family is now perhaps more associated with cryptocurrency than real estate. You and your son-- your sons, Don Jr. and Eric, have formed World Liberty Financial with the Witkoff family.
NORAH O’DONNELL: Looked at this, the government at the time said that C.Z. had caused “significant harm to U.S. national security”, essentially by allowing terrorist groups like Hamas to move millions of dollars around. Why did you pardon him?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Okay, are you ready? I don’t know who he is. I know he got a four-month sentence or something like that. And I heard it was a Biden witch hunt. And what I wanna do is see crypto, ‘cause if we don’t do it it’s gonna go to China, it’s gonna go to-- this is no different to me than AI.
My sons are involved in crypto much more than I-- me. I-- I know very little about it, other than one thing. It’s a huge industry. And if we’re not gonna be the head of it, China, Japan, or someplace else is. So I am behind it 100%. This man was, in my opinion, from what I was told, this is, you know, a four-month sentence.
But this man was treated really badly by the Biden administration. And he was given a jail term. He’s highly respected. He’s a very successful guy. They sent him to jail and they really set him up. That’s my opinion. I was told about it.
I said, “Eh, it may look bad if I do it. I have to do the right thing.” I don’t know the man at all. I don’t think I ever met him. Maybe I did. Or, you know, somebody shook my hand or something. But I don’t think I ever met him. I have no idea who he is. I was told that he was a victim, just like I was and just like many other people, of a vicious, horrible group of people in the Biden administration.
NORAH O’DONNELL: The government had accused him of “significant harm to U.S. national security”--
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: That’s the Biden government.
NORAH O’DONNELL: Okay. Allowing U.S. terrorist groups to, you know, essentially move millions of dollars around. He pled guilty to anti-money laundering laws. That was in 2023. Then in 2025 his crypto exchange, Binance, helped facilitate a $2 billion purchase of World Liberty Financial’s stablecoin. And then you pardoned C.Z. How do you address the appearance of pay for play?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, here’s the thing, I know nothing about it because I’m too busy doing the other--
NORAH O’DONNELL: But he got a pardon--
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I can only tell you that--
NORAH O’DONNELL: So not concerned about the appearance of corruption with this?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: 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. But I let you ask it. You just came to me and you said, “Can I ask another question?” And I said, yeah. This is the question--
NORAH O’DONNELL: And you answered--
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I don’t mind. Did I let you do it? I coulda walked away. I didn’t have to answer this question. I’m proud to answer the question. You know why? We’ve taken crypto--
NORAH O’DONNELL: But just generally speak--
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Excuse me. We’re number one in crypto in the whole world. Other people wanna be. They’re fighting like hell to be. But we’re number one in crypto because I’m the president. Biden wanted to also, at the very end, you know, he totally switched his thing.
After reading this the first time, and then the second, and then again… I had three thoughts.
I am absolutely shocked that they asked this question.
I actually believe Trump when he says that he does not know C.Z..
WLFI is back, and it still holds the potential to nuke this regime.
Back in April, I published the article “The Trump Crypto Scam Might be The Greatest Scam in American History.”
I am going to pull some information from that Article, in which I lay out the clear preparations that were being laid to execute the plans that we are seeing laid out at Trump’s feet in this interview.
In my first article, I make several assumptions, one of which is that Trump is well aware of the details of the plans being made. This answer calls that assumption into question for me. However, from an evidence-based perspective, I stand by what you will see there.
First, let’s briefly discuss the first two thoughts I shared earlier.
I am absolutely shocked that they asked this question.
To address this publicly is a mistake, given the blatant corruption scandal. He implies that it’s not really “his thing” and that he is just acting on what people are telling him… so basically Don Jr. and Eric, and Witkoff…
Trump is the Auto Pen that he claims Biden used oh so much, doing what is recommended to him by his family and associates because they say it will make money… Which it certainly does.
I am surprised that the producers of major media allowed this question, because the line of questioning it opens is one that, layer after layer, reveals deeper and more damning corruption and abuse of power by the Trump family in their position in the White House.
Especially when considering the recent acquisition of CBS by Paramount Global, which places it squarely under the Trump sphere of influence.
I actually believe Trump when he says that he does not know C.Z.
C.Z., or Chanpeng Zhao, was the founder of Binance. He served four months in Prison after pleading guilty to violating money laundering laws.
Now, look at this statement from Trump— Okay, are you ready? I don’t know who he is. I know he got a four-month sentence or something like that.
This line guides what I think to be the Truth. Since it comes early in the discussion, I am of the opinion that the answer he gives is surprisingly genuine. I believe this is in part due to his cognitive decline, and partly because he thinks that claiming he knows nothing about it will make what he is enabling via pardon less problematic for him.
This can also be confirmed; there are no public records of C.Z. and Trump ever meeting. So this is even a verifiable truth.
However, there is verifiable documentation that Eric Trump and Steve Witkoff were in attendance at the Bitcoin MENA 2024 conference in December of that year, at which Witkoff and Eric Trump spoke.
Furthermore, a Senate banking committee letter cites a meeting between Witkoff and Zhao at the conference. Eric Trump was also present at the Token 2049 conference in Dubai in May 2025, a conference where CZ is documented to have been warmly welcomed.
Most directly, Zach Witkoff, Steve Witkoff's son and a co-founder of World Liberty Financial (WLFI), met directly with CZ in April or May of 2025. This meeting was confirmed by CZ, who posted a photo on X of the two conferences.
What is absolutely verifiable here is that meetings occurred between CZ and Trump family members or close Trump associates, specifically the Witkoffs, who are intimately involved with Trump’s sons on the WLFI Stable Coin venture.
Among the founders of WLFI are all three of his sons, as well as Trump himself.
Don Jr. (Co-Founder), Eric Trump (Co-Founder), Barron Trump (Co-Founder), Donald J. Trump (Co-Founder Emeritus)
Zach Witkoff (Co-Founder and CEO), Alex Witkoff (Co-Founder), Steven Witkoff (Co-Founder Emeritus)
Co-founder Emeritus means
Does Not have active management duties or responsibilities.
Does Not have voting rights on the board or in company decisions.
May serve as an occasional advisor or symbolic figurehead for the company.
There are two other members on this founding team, Chase Herro and Zachary Folkman. However, these two individuals were the founders of WLFI prior to the Witkoff/Trump takeover of the company.
So, considering all of this, I believe that Trump himself never met CZ. Trump’s sons and the Witkoff family are actively leveraging their relationship with Trump to secure pardons for their business partners and for their own personal and business interests.
I believe that all Trump knows or cares about is that his sons and Witkoff are telling him they are making a ton of money, and, as I said earlier, they absolutely are.
With those two points addressed, let's talk about WLFI. I would like to share a timeline that I created in my April article. Afterward, we will build on that timeline, pulling in recent events.
WLFI is back, and it still holds the potential to nuke this regime.
Emergence of Trump-Linked Crypto Ventures (Timeline)
• Sep 2024: WLFI is announced by Donald Trump alongside his sons Don Jr., Eric, and advisor Steve Witkoff, just two months before the U.S. election . Its goal is to “democratize” finance via crypto, though critics note its governance structure heavily favors insiders.
• Nov 2024: Trump wins the 2024 presidential election. In the weeks after his victory, WLFI’s fundraising accelerates sharply – a Reuters analysis found most of WLFI’s $550 million token sales occurred after Trump’s win in November , as investors anticipated a crypto-friendly administration.
• Dec 2024: Controversial investors pile in. Justin Sun, founder of Tron (then facing SEC fraud charges), quietly buys about $75 million of $WLFI tokens . Around the same time, the SEC abruptly paused its enforcement case against Sun – raising eyebrows about preferential treatment. Other buyers include offshore funds and crypto entrepreneurs in Gibraltar and Puerto Rico (details below).
• Jan 2025: Trump takes office (again). Following inauguration, Trump’s family trust assumed majority control of WLFI, ousting the original founders . Fine-print updates on WLFI’s site revealed the Trump family (via an entity DT Marks DeFi LLC) now holds a 60% stake and is entitled to 75% of net revenues from token sales – an arrangement experts say “excludes” outside token-holders from meaningful upside . In short, the Trumps stood to personally reap hundreds of millions from WLFI’s token sale proceeds .
• Jan 23, 2025: Pro-Crypto Executive Order. Just days into his term, President Trump fulfilled his promise to be the “crypto president” by signing an Executive Order supporting digital assets. The order explicitly promotes blockchain innovation, protects the right to mine cryptocurrencies, calls for clear regulatory frameworks, and encourages USD-backed stablecoins – policies that would directly enable ventures like WLFI (which planned a stablecoin) and American Bitcoin (a mining firm). It also reversed prior administration policies seen as hostile to crypto .
• Mar 2025: Stablecoin plans and crypto expansion. WLFI announced it had raised over $550 million and unveiled plans for a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin “USD1” . At the same time, the Trump family deepened its crypto portfolio: Eric Trump and Donald Jr. partnered with Canadian mining company Hut 8 to launch American Bitcoin Corp., aiming to become a public-traded Bitcoin miner . Eric Trump took a senior role (chief strategy officer) in the venture . This came just after a high-profile White House “Crypto Summit” in early March, underscoring the administration’s public endorsement of crypto .
• Apr 2025: Regulatory and legislative spotlight. With WLFI’s stablecoin on the horizon, the White House began pushing Congress to pass stablecoin legislation . Lawmakers noted the timing: “The White House is boosting stablecoin legislation just as World Liberty Financial…is promising to launch such a token,” Axios reported . In Congressional hearings, Democrats warned that if Trump’s stablecoin faltered, he might bail it out with taxpayer funds . Meanwhile, Democrats Elizabeth Warren and Maxine Waters sent formal inquiries to the SEC about possible conflicts of interest, after reports that WLFI’s major backers received unusually favorable treatment from regulators (e.g. the halted case against Sun).
Timeline of key events linking Trump’s political resurgence with his family’s crypto projects and favorable policy moves (Sep 2024–Apr 2025). Trump’s election victory and return to power coincide with surging investment in WLFI and supportive regulatory gestures.
Now expand that timeline with notable events all the way up till the current date of 11/4/25
Current Developments (May 2025 – Nov 2025)
May 1, 2025: WLFI’s stablecoin, USD1, is chosen as the official token to close a $2 billion investment from the Abu Dhabi-based firm MGX into the crypto exchange Binance. The deal, announced by WLFI co-founder Zach Witkoff, significantly boosts USD1’s legitimacy.
May 5, 2025: Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ), who was released from prison in September 2024 after serving a four-month sentence for money laundering-related violations, publicly states that he has formally applied for a presidential pardon.
May 30, 2025: The SEC officially drops its lawsuit against Binance and Changpeng Zhao. The civil enforcement action, which had accused the company of misleading regulators and mishandling funds, is dismissed “with prejudice,” meaning it cannot be refiled.
Sep 1, 2025: The $WLFI token begins public trading for the first time after its lock-up period for early investors ends. On its market debut, the value of the Trump family’s 22.5 billion locked tokens is valued on paper at approximately $5 billion.
Sep 3, 2025: The Trump family’s American Bitcoin Corp. (Nasdaq: ABTC) completes its merger with Gryphon Digital Mining.
Oct 23, 2025: President Trump grants a full presidential pardon to Changpeng Zhao. The White House, in a statement, says Zhao was prosecuted by the previous administration in its “war on cryptocurrency” and notes there were “no allegations of fraud or identifiable victims.”
Oct 27, 2025: American Bitcoin Corp. announces it has acquired an additional 1,414 Bitcoin, increasing its strategic reserve to 3,865 Bitcoin.
Oct 29, 2025: In response to criticism from Democratic lawmakers, Binance.US defends its decision to list the WLFI stablecoin (USD1), calling it a “routine business decision” that was approved “some time ago” and not a political payback for the pardon.
Nov 2, 2025: In a “60 Minutes” interview, President Trump is asked about the pardon and the “pay-for-play” allegations. He defends the pardon, calling Zhao’s prosecution a “Biden witch hunt,” but claims he does not personally know him, stating, “I don’t know who he is.”
So what is a stablecoin? In short, it is the concept of backing a cryptocurrency with the US dollar. I talk about this in my aforementioned essay.
When you consider the creation of the US crypto reserve was established via Executive order in March of 2025, ESTABLISHMENT OF THE STRATEGIC BITCOIN RESERVE AND UNITED STATES DIGITAL ASSET STOCKPILE.
I want to share a portion of that executive order with you now.
The Secretary of the Treasury shall establish an office to administer and maintain control of custodial accounts collectively known as the “United States Digital Asset Stockpile,” capitalized with all digital assets owned by the Department of the Treasury, other than BTC, that were finally forfeited as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings and that are not needed to satisfy requirements under 31 U.S.C. 9705 or released pursuant to subsection (d) of this section (Stockpile Assets). Within 30 days of the date of this order, each agency shall review its authorities to transfer any Stockpile Assets held by it to the United States Digital Asset Stockpile and shall submit a report reflecting the result of that review to the Secretary of the Treasury. The Secretary of the Treasury shall determine strategies for responsible stewardship of the United States Digital Asset Stockpile in accordance with applicable law.
As of now, WLFI has not been stated as one of the assets to be held within the crypto reserve. The currently named assets are Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL), XRP, and Cardano (ADA).
That said, there is no reason to assume that this will remain the case. If this were to happen, the treasury would be purchasing an asset that would result in 75% of all token sale revenue going to the Trump family.
The takeaway
The WLFI stablecoin grift is undoubtedly illegal in countless ways. The reporter was correct when she asked the question.
So not concerned about the appearance of corruption with this?
It doesn't take a lawyer to see the setup here —the long game. I find it interesting that the Trump kids would pull the trigger on this acquisition 2 months before the election.
They were seemingly taking a massive risk, since under a Harris administration, they certainly would have seen a crackdown on crypto. Perhaps they were already confident of the election's outcome?
I believe this story is essential. I thought it was important when I wrote about it in April, when I sent it off to big networks like Meidas Touch, Aaron Parnas, and other notable names.
No one talked about it, and if they did, it was a passing comment, which is incredible to me because of the opportunity that it presents. I will quote my own article here.
So I ask myself, maybe the way to down this administration is not to get him on violations of the constitution or civil rights but to catch him red-handed using the paper trail that most certainly will prove massive collusion to use the white house and federal powers to manipulate the market and set the Trumps up to dominate the crypto market.
Could this be the crime that brings down Trump? A paper trail so obvious someone like me can put the pieces together?
Imagine what a real financial watchdog investigation would find, the conflict of interest and violation of many long-standing laws to prevent this precise form of corruption.
Here is a short list of apparent crimes…
Bribery (18 U.S.C. § 201)
What it is: A crime for a public official to corruptly receive anything of value in return for being influenced in an “official act.” This is a “quid pro quo” (this for that).
How it could apply: An investigation would look for a provable “quid pro quo” linking the presidential pardon for Changpeng Zhao (the “official act”) to the $2 billion investment from Binance into WLFI, the Trump family’s company (the “thing of value”).
Honest Services Fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1346)
What it is: A scheme that deprives the American public of their “intangible right” to a public official’s honest and impartial services, free from self-dealing.
How it could apply: If the president used their office (signing E.O.s, pushing legislation, issuing pardons) with the specific, secret intent to financially benefit their family’s private companies (WLFI and American Bitcoin), it could be argued this was a scheme to defraud the public.
Conflict of Interest and Self-Dealing
What it is: The general principle that a public official cannot use their government power to provide a direct financial benefit to themselves or their immediate family.
How it could apply:
Executive Orders: Signing the “Pro-Crypto Executive Order” to “directly enable” the family’s private companies.
Legislation: Pushing Congress for stablecoin legislation at the exact time WLFI was launching its own USD1 stablecoin.
Future Acts: Your hypothetical scenario of adding WLFI to the U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile, which would use public policy to route revenue directly to the family, would be a clear example.
Obstruction of Justice / Improper Influence (e.g., 18 U.S.C. § 1505)
What it is: A crime to corruptly influence or impede a pending proceeding before a federal agency.
How it could apply: An investigation would seek to determine if the White House improperly pressured the SEC to “abruptly pause” or “officially drop” its lawsuits against Justin Sun and Binance—two major partners of the family’s business.
There is a clear and documented timeline, business filings, and names all over this WLFI venture that blur the lines of presidential abuse of power for personal and family gain on levels we never dreamed possible.
The paper trail is most certainly within reach of those who know how to find it. So again, I would like to bring this matter to the forefront. I would encourage those who know more than I do to delve further, using this as a starting point. Then read my first article on this matter and go deeper.
The crypto grift, the greatest attempted American rug pull, is a move to take the treasury and buy crypto to pump up a market that the president, his family, and close associates own. American tax dollars are translating to indirect and potentially direct profit to the First Family itself.
This needs to be discussed, so let’s ensure that we, as Firebrands, do just that.
Thank you for reading.
Burn Bright, and I will be with you every step of the way.
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Burn Bright.
Shane
Fascinating. I know nothing of this world but the way you’ve laid out this argument meticulously helps me understand the depth of corruption. I know these people are corrupt in my bones, but now my brain is catching up. Thank you for your work. I hope it penetrates the bubble.
I had to listen a few times to understand him. For instance, at the beginning of the interview he was unable to say rare earths, so he either had a stroke, or the dementia is getting worse. But it seems he is faking and unable to say some words.