Consultation with a lawyer who has ties with President Trump. Reach for lobbyists in Washington. And sit for a prison interview with Tucker Carlson.
Sam Bankman-Vrijdourd, the Chatter Cryptocurrency-Mogul who was once a top democratic donor, started a long-term campaign to get a grace of the Trump government, according to six people with knowledge of the case.
The effort is driven by a small group of the supporters of Mr. Bankman-Gefuurt, including his parents, Joe Bankman and Barbara Fried, who are trying to help their son escape the 25-year prison sentence he received after he was convicted of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering in the collapse of his Crypto-Wongewit.
There are no indications that the Bankman baked and their allies have reached Mr. Trump directly or have discussed a potential grace with his White House advisers.
But the push seems intended to take advantage of the transactional approach of Mr Trump for Clementia. The president has preferred pardon seekers to connection with him – personally or through lawyers and lobbyists – and claims of prosecution behavior that reflect his own complaints about the cases against him.
As part of the Clementia -effort, Mr. Bankman and Mrs. Fried, professors of Stanford University and old active Democrats, with Kory Langhofer, a lawyer in Arizona who worked for the presidential campaigns of Mr Trump 2016 and 2020. Politically associated businessmen and lobbyists have also received the Bondrachten tone to be totally totally received too to have totters too to be too totaten to be too totaten to be home to too to the Bondententons totaten. Bankman baked, three people with knowledge of the situation.
His supporters have also taken steps that seem to be calculated to seek favor from Mr. Trump in smaller ways. Mr. Bankman, who has maintained a low profile since the collapse of FTX, wrote last month together with an opinion piece in the Washington Post that Mr Trump's plans can help dramatically increase the productivity of the business forms for a sovereign power fund. “
The allies of Mr. Bankman-Gruituurd are of the opinion that they can point out defects in his persecution that would resonate with Mr Trump. “The persecution told a story about FTX and Sam Bankman-Grijduurd that is not correct,” said Mr Langhofer. “If the audience knew the full story, they would look at it differently.” On Thursday reached by telephone, Mrs. Fried refused to comment. Bloomberg News reported in January that Mr. Bankman-Fried's parents had met people in Mr Trump's job to work for a possible grace.
A representative of the White House refused to comment.
Until now, the push does not seem to have won a grip, the people with knowledge of the case said. The only indication that Mr. Bankman-Gorchrijduur might make progress, this week, when he got an audience with Tucker Carlson, who was close to Mr. Trump is. On Thursday, the former FOX News-Gastheer published an interview of 43 minutes with Mr Bankman-Fried that was recorded via video call.
Speaking from the metropolitan detention center in Brooklyn, where he is held over the past 18 months, Mr. Bankman-Gefreurd carried a dark brown prison equipment about a gray T-shirt and narrowed from a white mug. He made an indirect pitch to Mr Trump, with the argument that he was closer to the Washington Republicans at the time of his arrest than at Democrats. He carefully expressed optimism about how Mr Trump would unleash the crypto industry.
“Changing the guard helps,” he said.
The Bureau of Prisons has strict rules about who can communicate with prisoners and which channels they can use. After the interview with Mr Carlson was posted, Mr. Bankman-Fried was placed in lonely imprisonment, a person said about the situation.
A representative of the Bureau of Prisons said: “This specific interview was not approved.” She refused to comment on whether Mr. Bankman-Fried, who turned 33, was in lonely imprisonment.
Three years ago, Mr. Bankman-Fried was a billionaire crypto director who hobnobed Tom Brady and Katy Perry and donated tens of millions of dollars to Democrats.
FTX then collapsed in November 2022. Federal Public Prosecutors accused Mr Bankman Vriedried, stealing $ 8 billion of customers and committing fraud against the investors and lenders of the company. In 2023 he was convicted after a one -month trial and later sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Mr. Bankman-Fried has maintained his innocence. He submitted an appeal in September and argued that the judge who supervised the case, biased against him.
The pardon effort represents an even brave attempt to reverse his conviction. Mr. Bankman-Fried does not fit into the profile of someone who Mr. Trump instinctive would grace. The former Crypto -Mogul not only donated to Democrats, but also expressed opposition against Mr. Trump. His conviction was celebrated by Elon Musk, the close adviser of the president.
Nevertheless, Mr Trump has shown the willingness to grant clementia to people whose causes have resonated with him or who have access to his circle of Republican allies. During the election campaign he was enthusiastically supported by Crypto leaders, who encouraged him to act on various policy priorities. Among them: a pardon for Ross Ulbricht, a cult hero in the crypto world that selected a lifelong prison for running the online Silk Road of the drug market. Mr. Trump gave the grace within a few days of his inauguration.
Since then, Mr. Trump has taken further steps to stimulate the industry, in which he commands a national reserve of cryptocurrencies and inviting managers to the White House for a first “crypto-summit” on Friday.
It is unlikely that these conversations help Mr. Bankman-Rijduurduurd, who is a widespreader in the crypto world. But his allies believe that elements of his case – and some of the people involved – the eye of Mr. Trump can catch.
The judge who foreseen the process of Mr Bankman-Fried, Lewis A. Kaplan, also supervised the defamation that was submitted 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 prosecutors in New York last month after refusing charges against New York City Eric Adams, Eric Adamson.
In the court, Mr. Bankman-Fried's lawyers claimed that Judge Kaplan had unfairly prevented him from presenting evidence that the prosecution of Mrs. Sassoon would have contradicted. That argument is the core of Mr Bankman-Fried's case for Clementia, a person who is familiar with the effort.
For months, Mr. Bankman and Mrs. Fried de Heer Langhofer consulted, a former American public prosecutor who filed a lawsuit on behalf of Mr. Trump's campaign who disputed the voice of the 2020 elections in Arizona.
Mr Langhofer withdrew the election case when it became clear that the outcome of the case would be insufficient to tip the results in the state. In a radio interview from 2022, Mr. Trump expressed accident with his approach.
“If you look at Langhofer, I don't agree with him as a lawyer,” he said. “I didn't think he was a good lawyer to hire.”
Mr. Bankman-Fried has slowly cleaned up as a public figure. Last week he placed X for the first time since January 2023, after thinking about Mr Trump's fired in the federal workforce. He argued that it was sometimes important to fire people.
“It makes no sense to keep them in the neighborhood, nothing to do,” he wrote.
The biography part of the account has been updated to read: “SBF's words. Shared by a friend. “On Thursday, the account posted a link to the video of Mr. Carlson, who thanked him for performing the interview.
The video has caused friction with the few remaining supporters of Mr. Bankman-Gefuurtuurd. After it was published, his old spokesperson, Mark Botnick, resigned. Mr. Botnick said he had only discovered the interview after it was spread online. He refused to comment further.
Maggie Haberman contributed reporting.
