TL;DR
- Bankman-Fried claims new witness testimony justifies another trial.
- The White House stated it is not considering a pardon for him.
- Trump pardoned other crypto figures but drew a line here.
A federal judge has set a deadline for prosecutors to respond to Sam Bankman-Fried’s request for a new trial. The order, filed on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, gives the government until March 11 to submit its reply.
Bankman-Fried’s lawyers filed the motion earlier this month. They argue that new testimony from witnesses could help their client’s case. The former FTX CEO was found guilty in 2023 on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy. A jury determined he stole billions in customer deposits from his cryptocurrency exchange. Judge Lewis Kaplan later sentenced him to 25 years in prison.
Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO of FTX in November 2022
The company collapsed that same month after reports surfaced about its financial ties to Alameda Research, a trading firm he also controlled. U.S. authorities later charged him with misusing customer money to fund political donations, real estate purchases, and risky trades.
After Kaplan handed down the sentence in March 2024, Bankman-Fried’s legal team filed an appeal. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has not yet ruled on that filing.
Caroline Ellison, who ran Alameda Research and dated Bankman-Fried, testified against him at trial. She agreed to cooperate with prosecutors as part of a plea deal. Ellison was released from custody in January after spending 440 days in jail. Ryan Salame, another former FTX executive, received a sentence of more than seven years and remains in prison.
Bankman-Fried Changes Public Strategy
For most of his first year behind bars, Bankman-Fried stayed off social media. That changed in 2025. He started posting on X, to challenge information about the FTX collapse and to support President Donald Trump.
The CLARITY Act will be a huge milestone for crypto and a huge achievement for @realDonaldTrump.
I was championing a similar bill to get crypto out of Gensler's hands when Gensler helped Biden's DOJ put me behind bars. https://t.co/6Iwawkzx2P https://t.co/JpFkcYbNge
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) February 25, 2026
In March 2025, Bankman-Fried gave an interview to political commentator Tucker Carlson. He spoke from the Brooklyn jail where he was being held. The interview was not approved by prison officials. Sources told ABC News that the unauthorized interview led to his transfer to a different federal facility.
During the Carlson interview, Bankman-Fried said he had better relationships with Republicans than with Democrats. He claimed political bias affected his prosecution and sentencing. He also criticized Judge Kaplan, who oversaw a civil defamation case against Trump in 2023. Bankman-Fried posted on X that Kaplan showed bias in both cases.
Clinton-appointed judge Lewis Kaplan made his political bias very clear when sentencing me and @rsalame7926.
Kaplan ranted about how I “set up a vehicle for making political donations to the right.”
“The state of our political life in this country is in jeopardy,” he said, and…
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) February 18, 2026
Pardon Speculation and White House Position
Bankman-Fried’s outreach to Trump and his supporters led to speculation that he might seek a presidential pardon. His parents, both law professors at Stanford, reportedly consulted with a lawyer who worked on Trump’s previous campaigns. They also contacted other people with political connections in Washington.
The White House has repeatedly said a pardon is not under consideration. In January, President Trump told the New York Times he did not plan to pardon Bankman-Fried. A White House spokesperson stood by that statement in a Fortune magazine report published Tuesday.
Trump has pardoned several people tied to the crypto industry since taking office. He granted clemency to Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, in January. In March, he pardoned the co-founders of the BitMEX exchange. In October, he pardoned former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao.
Those cases differ from Bankman-Fried’s. Ulbricht’s prosecution drew criticism from libertarians who viewed his sentence as too harsh. The BitMEX founders and Zhao were convicted of regulatory violations. Bankman-Fried was convicted of stealing customer funds directly. Prosecutors said the fraud totaled roughly $8 billion. He was also a major donor to Democratic candidates, including a $5.2 million contribution to Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign.
Bankman-Fried is now held at a federal correctional institution in California. His appeal of the conviction is still pending before the Second Circuit. The government’s response to his motion for a new trial is due next week.
