SBF Angling For Clemency From President Trump

Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) is making a calculated bid for a presidential pardon, using his first prison interview to align himself with Donald Trump while denouncing the Biden administration.

Speaking from Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where he is serving a 25-year sentence for orchestrating one of the largest cryptocurrency frauds in history, the FTX founder claimed his prosecution was an example of Biden-era “prosecutorial overreach.”

The interview, conducted by Ari Hoffmann of The New York Sun on 18 February, coincided with FTX’s long-awaited customer repayments—though critics argue these payouts reflect 2022’s market lows rather than current valuations.

SBF’s plea also comes as Trump’s past crypto-related pardons, including Ross Ulbricht’s, loom large in industry memory.

Meanwhile, his parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, have reportedly sought clemency on his behalf.

SBF appears to be courting Trump by tapping into his grievances against the Democratic establishment, suggesting they share common adversaries.

He pointedly linked his own trial judge, Lewis Kaplan, to Trump’s legal battles, while also highlighting the recent resignation of federal prosecutor Danielle Sassoon—who led the case against him—following reported pressure from Trump’s DOJ to drop a bribery probe into New York Mayor Eric Adams.

He expressed:

"When politics get involved — both in a partisan sense and the career advancement for law enforcement sense — it blows everything out of proportion, and patterns that exist in a lot of places metastasize in an unconstrained way.”

With clemency on the line, how far is SBF willing to go?

SBF Throws Shade on Biden in Attempt to Flatter Trump

Hinting that his rightward shift began in 2022, SBF said:

“A lot of my time was spent on crypto policy and I, you know, became really frustrated and disappointed with what I saw of, you know, the Biden administration and Democratic party. The Biden administration was just incredibly destructive and difficult to work with and frankly the Republican party was far more reasonable.”

In 2020, SBF emerged as the second-largest donor to Joe Biden’s campaign, a move he framed as an effort to prevent the Democratic Party from drifting toward Bernie Sanders’ brand of democratic socialism.

At the same time, he claimed to have funnelled an equivalent amount to Republican candidates through “dark money” channels—highlighting what he called a shifting political landscape in the tech sector, where former Democratic backers like Mark Zuckerberg and Marc Andreessen are now aligning with Trump, he continued:

“I viewed myself at the time as sort of Center-Left and that's not how I view myself anymore.”

Though prosecutors ultimately dropped a second trial over SBF’s alleged campaign finance violations, he pointed to the harsh consequences faced by his former associate, Ryan Salame.

The ex-co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, who publicly positioned himself as the Republican counterbalance to SBF’s liberal persona, received a 90-month sentence for unlawful political contributions.

Referring to his co-conspirators who testified against him, SBF added:

"You had one Republican who pled guilty to really small sets of the charges ... He got a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence — four times as long as the other three combined, all of whom were on the other side of the aisle.”

In his bid to win Trump’s favour, SBF has leaned into rhetoric that flatters the former president—praising his aggressive approach to cutting bureaucracy while denouncing Biden:

“There are a lot of things I don't like about my personal situation right now, you know. Money isn't the important one.”

Yet, for all his efforts to ingratiate himself, one reality may forever set him apart.

SBF Blames the Case, Claims Innocence Still

SBF is also appealing his conviction, pushing for a mistrial by doubling down on claims that FTX and its sister firm, Alameda Research, were never insolvent.

He argues that law firm Sullivan & Cromwell mismanaged FTX’s bankruptcy proceedings after assuming control in November 2022.

SBF stated:

"There were enough assets to get all customers paid in kind, in full, in November 2022. Instead, customers have had to wait two and a half years while the estate said it’s hopelessly insolvent, a ‘dumpster fire.’"

While some of FTX and Alameda’s investments, including an early stake in AI firm Anthropic, have since appreciated significantly, this does little to address the fundamental issue: during a financial collapse, customers need immediate access to their funds—not years later.

SBF insists there is evidence proving he never misappropriated billions in customer deposits and that sufficient cash was available.

He pointed out:

"Judge Kaplan allowed the prosecution to tell the jury that everyone had lost all of their money, [but] in a separate ruling disallowed the defense from addressing the exact same topic — and the fact that the story the jury was told was false obviously made that a pretty critical point.”

He continues to frame FTX’s operations as standard borrowing and lending within a margin-trading platform, maintaining that the firm only “appeared” insolvent rather than actually being so.

He continued:

“That doesn't answer all the questions but it does answer the question of whether fundamentally there was a theft or whether fundamentally there's like a contractual function.”

Will Trump Pardon SBF or Continue Ignoring Him?

SBF, once a dominant figure in the crypto world, is now seeking a way out of federal prison.

Since his legal battle began in 2022, he has repeatedly fought for release—with little success.

Now, he is shifting tactics, hoping for a pardon from former President Trump.

He said:

“My judge, Judge Kaplan, is one of Trump’s judges in New York, which is sort of part of a larger fight going on between the incoming Trump DOJ and what they see from Biden’s DOJ. I know there have been discussions of a pardon… Given what President Trump has seen of the DOJ and its politicization, I think there is a real conversation happening around that.”

Before FTX’s dramatic collapse, SBF was a key player in global crypto markets and a major Democratic donor, helping to fund Joe Biden’s 2020 victory over Trump.

However, his political clout vanished alongside his empire.

In a strategic pivot, he is now distancing himself from the Biden administration, criticising its crypto policies, and arguing that his conviction was a result of government overreach—something he claims Trump can undo.

He claimed:

“I viewed myself at the time as sort of center-left, and that’s not how I view myself anymore. By 2022, I had spent a bunch of time in Washington, D.C., working with legislators, regulators, and the executive branch, and I became really frustrated and disappointed with what I saw of the Biden administration and the Democratic Party. Particularly on crypto policy, the Biden administration was just incredibly destructive and difficult to work with. I think my case fits into that broader context.”

Whether this approach will sway Trump remains uncertain.

While SBF insists he also funded Republicans, his direct financial support for Trump’s opponent in 2020 may prove a major hurdle.

Despite his assertions of innocence, securing a pardon seems like an uphill battle.

Just how far is he willing to go for freedom?