The possibility of FTX’s co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) being released from prison has arisen again. This comes following his latch ditch political efforts to gain a presidential pardon from Donald Trump.
Sam Bankman-Fried Seeks To Gain Favor From Donald Trump
Sam Bankman-Fried is looking to get in Donald Trump’s good books and possibly get a pardon from the US president. In a recent interview with the New York Sun, SBF moved to throw the Democratic party and Biden’s administration under the bus in hopes of gaining sympathy from Trump and the Republican party.
The crypto founder stated that he was really “frustrated and disappointed with what [he] saw of Biden’s administration of the Democratic party. It is worth mentioning that SBF was one of the biggest donors of the biggest donors of the Democratic party before he was convicted of fraud and misappropriation of customers’ funds and sentenced to 25 years on March 28, 2024.
The FTX co-founder also tried to gain sympathy from the current administration by showing support for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E), which has been tasked with cutting government expenses. SBF said that some things need more than a 10% cut and added that it could go as far as 30,50, and 70%.
SBF has maintained his innocence up until now. In the interview, he once again mentioned that he doesn’t think anyone was guilty in reference to him and other FTX executives who were found guilty.
Before now, Bitcoinist had reported that Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents were appealing to Donald Trump to get a presidential pardon for their son. As such, this interview may be one of the avenues that SBF and his parents are using to get the US president’s attention.
FTX’s SBF Also Takes Aim At Biden’s Judiciary
Sam Bankman-Fried also criticized Judge Lewis Kaplan, the judge in charge of his case, and the Department Of Justice (DOJ) under Biden’s administration. The crypto founder lamented the “politicization of the DOJ over the last decades,” although he remarked that things look to be changing under Trump.
Interestingly, Kaplan was also the same judge who presided over the civil case against Trump in which the jury reached a verdict that he sexually abused and defamed E. Jean Carroll. SBF looked to take advantage of this common interest with Trump, stating that he knows the US president had a lot of frustrations with Judge Kaplan. He added that he did as well.
Sam Bankman-Fried filed an appeal last year in which one of his major arguments was that Judge Kaplan was biased. He suggested that the Judge had declared him guilty from the onset and didn’t give him a fair hearing in his case.
Sam Bankman-Fried could become the second crypto criminal that US President Donald Trump pardons. The president already pardoned Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht, a promise that he made even before he took office.
