Convicted FTX CEO SBF Cries ‘Biden Lawfare’ In Trump Pardon Pitch

Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) used a brand new X thread on Feb. 9 to reframe his felony case as “Biden’s political lawfare,” positioning himself alongside Donald Trump and former FTX govt Ryan Salame in what learn like a direct attraction for a future pardon.

“Biden’s lawfare machine threw bogus prices at me, Donald Trump, Ryan Salame, and many others.,” Bankman-Fried wrote. “To make the costs stick, they prevented us from even being allowed to reply.” He opened with a blunt declare about course of relatively than information: “Rule No. 1 of Biden’s political lawfare: Don’t allow them to current proof.”

SBF Cries ‘Gagged Trial,’ Claims DOJ Hid Evidence

SBF’s argument hinges on the concept that authorities and the court docket curtailed what the jury might hear. He repeatedly singled out Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over his trial, claiming the court docket “rubber-stamped every part Biden’s DOJ needed” and “made positive I couldn’t present the jury the reality.”

The “fact,” as SBF solid it, is a solvency narrative: “So they lied, stated I stole billions of {dollars} and bankrupted FTX. But the cash was at all times there and FTX was at all times solvent.” He additionally argued that restrictions prevented him from advancing that line at trial, writing that he was “prohibited” from “mentioning FTX was solvent” and from “even mentioning attorneys.”

In the thread, SBF linked to a court docket submitting he stated was authored by his prosecutor, “Sassoon,” describing it as “a 70-page doc on all of the proof they didn’t need the jury to see,” and he framed the episode as a part of a broader political effort to “silence the reality.”

A big chunk of the thread is devoted to Trump’s New York hush-money bookkeeping case, which Bankman-Fried portrayed as a routine classification dispute blown into criminality. “Charged him with 34 crimes over his bookkeeping of an NDA expense—ought to it’s authorized, marketing campaign, or private?,” he wrote. “These questions come up on a regular basis while you’re working a enterprise, and it’s typically unclear.”

He then drew a parallel between court-imposed limits on Trump and his personal pre-trial detention. “They then acquired the choose to impose a gag order on Donald Trump,” he wrote. “Biden’s DOJ silenced me, too—getting Judge Kaplan to gag after which jail me earlier than trial. President Trump additionally had Kaplan as a choose.”

Bankman-Fried additionally amplified Salame’s complaints about licensing recommendation and charging choices, alleging prosecutors leaned on strain techniques to power a plea, together with claims involving Salame’s fiancée, assertions introduced as reality within the thread however not accompanied by supporting documentation past hyperlinks to Salame’s posts.

The response beneath was unsparing, with a number of trade figures deciphering the thread much less as a authorized critique than a political pitch. “You’re a Delusional felony who’s now angling for a pardon,” wrote dealer Bob Loukas. Attorney Ariel Givner was much more direct: “We GET it. You desire a pardon from Trump.”

At press time, FTT traded at $0.3021.