Sam Bankman fried lobbies is associated with Trump with the hope of a forgiveness

Consult a lawyer who has links with President Trump. Arriving at the lobbyists of Washington. And sitting for an interview in jail with Tucker Carlson.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the dishonorated magnate of cryptocurrencies that was once a main Democratic donor, has embarked on a long-term shooting campaign to ensure a forgiveness of the Trump administration, said six people with knowledge of the matter.

The effort has been promoted by a small group of supporters of Mr. Bankman-Fried, including his parents, Joe Bankman and Barbara Fried, who are trying to help their child escape from the 25-year prison sentence he received after he was sentenced for fraud, conspiracy and money laundering in the collapse of his crypto exchange, FTX.

There are no indications that the Bankman and their allies have arrived directly to Mr. Trump or discussed a potential forgiveness with their White House advisors.

But the impulse seems to intend to capitalize Trump's transactional approach to clemency. The president has favored forgiveness applicants with connections with him, either personally or through lawyers and lobbyists, and claims of fiscal misconduct that echoes his own complaints about the cases against him.

As part of Clemencia's effort, Mr. Bankman and Mrs. Fried, who are law professors at Stanford University and active Democrats for a long time, consult with Kory Langhofer, an Arizona lawyer who worked for the presidential campaigns of 2016 and 2020 of 2016 and 2020. politically connected entrepreneurs and the Washington councils have also received the reach Of the intermediaries who claim to be allies of Mr. Bankman fried, three people said with knowledge of the situation.

His supporters have also taken measures that seem calculated to look for Mr. Trump's favor in a smaller way. Mr. Bankman, who has maintained a low profile since the collapse of FTX, co-wrote An opinion article at the Washington Post last month arguing that Trump's plans for a sovereign wealth fund could help “drastically increase corporate productivity.”

Mr. Bankman-Fried's allies believe they can point out failures in their prosecution that would resonate with Mr. Trump. “The Prosecutor's Office told a story about FTX and Sam Bankman Frito that is not correct,” Langhofer said. “If the public knew the full story, they would see it differently.”

Consisted by phone on Thursday, Mrs. Fried declined to comment. Bloomberg News reported in January that Mr. Bankman-Fried's parents had fiscal With people in Trump's orbit to work towards possible forgiveness.

A White House representative declined to comment.

Until now, the impulse does not seem to have won traction, people said with knowledge of the matter. The only indication that Mr. Bankman-Frito can be advancing this week, when he obtained <a target="_blank" class="css-yywogo" href="https://x.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1897709140535132442″ title=”” rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>A audience with Mr. Carlsonwhich is close to Mr. Trump. On Thursday, former Fox News presenter published a 43-minute interview with Mr. Bankman-Fried that was recorded through a video call.

Speaking from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he has been held during the last 18 months, Mr. Bankman-Frito wore a dark brown prison attire on a gray shirt and drank from a white cup. He made an indirect launch to Mr. Trump, arguing that at the time of his arrest, he was closer to Washington Republicans than of the Democrats. He explained a cautious optimism about how Trump would unleash cryptocurrency.

“Change the guard helps,” he said.

The prison office has strict rules about who can communicate with inmates and which channels can use. After the interview with Mr. Carlson was published, Mr. Bankman-Fried was placed in solitary confinement, said an informed person about the situation.

A representative of the Prison Office said that “this particular interview was not approved.” She refused to comment if Mr. Bankman-Fried, who turned 33 on Thursday, was in solitary confinement.

Three years ago, Mr. Bankman-Fried was a multi-million dollar cryptographic executive who spent Tom Brady and Katy Perry and donated dozens of millions of dollars to the Democrats.

Then, in November 2022, FTX collapsed. Federal prosecutors accused Mr. Bankman-Frito to steal $ 8 billion from customers and commit fraud against the company's investors and lenders. In 2023, he was sentenced after a one -month trial and then sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Mr. Bankman-Fried has maintained his innocence. He presented an appeal in September, arguing that the judge who supervised the case was partial against him.

The forgiveness effort represents an even more bold attempt to reverse your conviction. Mr. Bankman-Fried does not conform to the profile of someone that Mr. Trump will forgive instinctively. The former cryptographic tycoon not only donated the Democrats, but also expressed himself opposition To Mr. Trump. His conviction was held by Elon Musk, the president's nearby advisor.

Even so, Trump has shown the will to grant clemency to people whose causes have resonated with him or who have access to his circle of Republican allies. During the electoral campaign, he was enthusiastically backed by cryptographic executives, who urged him to act on several political priorities. Among them: a forgiveness for Ross Ulbricht, a worship hero in the cryptographic world that was fulfilling a life sentence for administering the Silk Road online drug market. Trump issued forgiveness a few days after his inauguration.

Since then, Trump has taken more measures to boost the industry, ordering the creation of a national cryptocurrency reserve and inviting executives to the White House for a first “crypto summit” of its kind on Friday.

It is unlikely that these conversations help Mr. Bankman-Frito, who is widely resentful in the cryptographic world. But their allies believe that the elements of their case, and some of the people involved could draw the attention of Mr. Trump.

The judge who presided over Mr. Bankman-Fried, Lewis A. Kaplan, also supervised the defamation case filed against Mr. Trump by the writer E. Jean Carroll, who had accused the president of rape. (The jury finally ordered Trump to pay Mrs. Carroll more than $ 80 million). And a main prosecutor in the FTX case was Danielle Sassoon, who resigned from the Federal Fiscal Office in New York last month after refusing to withdraw charges against the mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, despite the requests of officials in Washington.

In the Court, Mr. Bankman-Fried's lawyers affirmed that Judge Kaplan had unfairly prevented him from presenting evidence that had contradict the prosecution of Mrs. Sassoon. That argument is the nucleus of Mr. Bankman-Fried's clemency case, said a person familiar with the effort.

For months, Mr. Bankman and Mrs. Fried have consulted with Mr. Langofer, a former US prosecutor who filed a lawsuit on behalf of Mr. Trump's campaign that challenges the 2020 electoral voting account in Arizona.

Mr. Langhofer withdrew the electoral demand when it was clear that the result of the case would be insufficient to bow the results in the state. In a 2022 radio interview, Mr. Trump He expressed unhappiness With your approach.

“When you look at Langhofer, I don't agree with him as a lawyer,” he said. “I didn't think I was a good lawyer to hire.”

Mr. Bankman-Fried has been slowly resurating as a public figure. Last week, he <a target="_blank" class="css-yywogo" href="https://x.com/SBF_FTX/status/1894204086754709951″ title=”” rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>aware In x for the first time since January 2023, reflecting on Mr. Trump's layoffs in the Federal Labor. He argued that sometimes it was important to fire people.

“It makes no sense to keep them close, do nothing,” he wrote.

The account biography section was updated to read: “SBF's words. Shared by a friend. “Thursday, the account <a target="_blank" class="css-yywogo" href="https://x.com/SBF_FTX/status/1897715567521321434″ title=”” rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>aware A link to Mr. Carlson's video, thanking him for conducting the interview.

The video has caused friction among the few remaining supporters of Mr. Bankman-Fried. After his life spokesman Mark Botnick was published, he resigned. Mr. Botnick said he had heard about the interview only after it circulated online. He declined to make more comments.

Maggie Haberman Contributed reports.