Sam Bankman-Fride Lobby Trump Associates in hope of an forgiveness

Consulting with a lawyer, who is related to President Trump. Reaching Washington Lobists. And sat for a gelhouse interview with Tucker Carlson.

Sam Bankman-Fride, insulted Cryptocurrency Mogul, who was once a top Democratic donor, has launched a long shot campaign from the Trump administration to secure a forgiveness, saying six people with knowledge of the case.

The effort is operated by a small group of supporters of Mr. Bankman-Fried, including his parents, who are trying to help their son to avoid 25-year-old jail sentence, who were found after being convicted of cheating, conspiracy and money laundering in the fall of their Crypto Exchange, FTX.

There is no indication whether Bankman-Fride and his colleague have reached directly to Mr. Trump or discussed a possible apology with their White House advisors.

But the purpose of push is intended to capitalize on Mr. Trump’s transaction approach to apologizing. The President has biased the fans of the mafis with relationships with them – either individually or through lawyers and lobists – and prosecution claims with claims of misconduct of prosecution that echo their grievances about cases against them.

As part of the pardon’s effort, Mr. Bankman and Ms. Fried, who are the Professor of the law of Stanford University and long -active Democrats, are consulting with Erizona’s lawyer Corey Langhofar, who worked for Mr. Trump’s 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns. Politically associated businessmen and Washington Lobists have also received outreach out of middlemen, who claim to be an associate of Mr. Bankman-Fride, three people said with knowledge of the situation.

His supporters have also taken steps that calculate with Mr. Trump to perform small ways. Mr. Bankman, who has maintained a low profile since FTX collapse, co-cumwrote An opinion of an opinion in the Washington Post last month is that Mr. Trump’s plans for a sovereign money fund can help “dramatically increase corporate productivity”.

Associates of Mr. Bankman-Fride believe that they can indicate flaws in their prosecution that will resonate with Mr. Trump. “The prosecution told a story about FTX and Sam Bankman-Fride that is not correct,” Mr. Langhoffar said. “If the public knows the whole story, they will see it differently.”

Arrived on the phone on Thursday, Ms. Fried refused to comment. Bloomberg News reported in January that Mr. Bankman-Fride’s parents were meet To work towards a possible forgiveness with people in Mr. Trump’s orbit.

A representative of the White House refused to comment.

Till now, there is no shock that traction has been received, people with knowledge of this case said. The only indication is that Mr. Bankman-Fride can make Headway this week when he got it A viewer with Mr. CarlsonWhich is close to Mr. Trump. On Thursday, Fox News Host published a 43-minute interview with Mr. Bankman-Fride, which was recorded via video call.

Speaking from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he has been held for the last 18 months, Mr. Bankman-Fride wore a dark brown gel dress over a gray T-shirt and was snatched with a white mug. He made Mr. Trump an indirect pitch, arguing that at the time of his arrest, he was close to the Washington Republican than the Democrats. He voiced vigilant optimism as to how Shri Trump would remove the crypto industry.

“Changing the guard helps,” he said.

The bureau of jails has strict rules of who are allowed to communicate with the prisoners and which channels they can use. After the interview with Mr. Carlson, Mr. Bankman-Fride was kept in solitary imprisonment, one person said the situation said.

A representative of the jails bureau said that “this special interview was not approved.” He refused to comment on whether Mr. Bankman-Fride, who had turned 33 on Thursday, was in solitary imprisonment.

Three years ago, Mr. Bankman-Fride was an executive of a billionaire Crypto, who fonds with Tom Brady and Katy Perry and donated millions of dollars to Democrats.

Then in November 2022, FTX collapsed. Federal prosecutors accused customers of stealing $ 8 billion from customers and cheating the company’s investors and lenders. In 2023, he was convicted after a one -month trial and was later sentenced to 25 years in jail.

Mr. Bankman-Fride has maintained his innocence. He filed an appeal in September, arguing that the judges who oversee the case were biased against him.

The attempt of forgiveness represents even more adventurous effort to reverse his belief. Mr. Bankman-Fride does not fit one’s profile, Mr. Trump will easily forgive. Former Crypto Mogul not only donated to Democrats, but also gave voice Oppose To Mr. Trump. His sentence was celebrated by Elon Musk, a close advisor to the President.

Nevertheless, Mr. Trump has shown a desire to give up to those who have resonated with him or who have access to their circles of Republican colleagues. During the election campaign, he was enthusiastically supported by Crypto officials, who urged him to take action on several policy priorities. Among them: Crypto, a forgiveness for Ross Ross Albrigtt, a creed hero in the world, who was serving a life sentence in jail for running an online drug marketplace silk road. Mr. Trump released forgiveness within his inauguration days.

Since then, Mr. Trump has taken more steps to promote the industry, for the first time on Friday to build a national reserve of Cryptocurrency and invite officers for the first “Crypto Summit”.

The conversations are unlikely to help Mr. Bankman-Fride, who are widely angry in the Crypto world. But his colleagues believe that the elements of his case – and some people involved – can hold the eye of Mr. Trump.

Judge, who presided over the testing of Mr. Bankman-Fride, Louise A. The couple also wrote the writer. Jean Carol oversee the defamation case filed against Mr. Trump, who accused the President of rape. (Jury eventually ordered Trump to pay Ms. Carol to more than $ 80 million.) And a prominent prosecutor in the FTX case was Daniel Sasoon, who resigned from the office of federal prosecutors in New York last month, who refused to release the allegations against the Mayor Eric Adams of New York City, after refusing to refuse the authorities.

In court, the lawyers of Mr. Bankman-Fride claimed that the judge couple had stopped him from presenting evidence incorrectly, who denied Ms. Sasoon’s prosecution. This argument is the origin of Clemensey’s case for the case of Mr. Bankman-Fride, which the person familiar with the effort said.

For months, Mr. Bankman and Ms. Fried have consulted a former US prosecutor Mr. Langhofar, who filed a lawsuit on behalf of Mr. Trump’s campaign challenging the counting of 2020 electoral votes in Arizona.

Mr. Langhofar withdrew the election suit when it became clear that the result of the case to tip the results in the state would be insufficient. In a radio interview of 2022, Mr. Trump Expressed unhappiness With his approach.

“When you look at Langhofar, I disagree with him as a lawyer,” he said. “I didn’t think he was a good lawyer to rent.”

Mr. Bankman-Fride is gradually emerging as a public person. Last week, that Posted For the first time since January 2023, on X, the federal work reflects the sorting of Shri Trump during the force. He argued that sometimes it was important to set people on fire.

He wrote, “There is no point in keeping them around, doing nothing.”

The account was updated to read the biography section of the account: “SBF words. Shared by a friend. On Thursday, account Posted A link to Mr. Carlson’s video, thanks him for conducting an interview.

The video has created friction among some of the remaining supporters of Mr. Bankman-Fride. After being published, his long -time spokesperson, Mark Botnik resigned. Mr. Botnik said that he came to know about the interview only after he broadcast online. He declined to comment further.

Maggi Haberman Contribution reporting.