All 100 senators just told TrumpNOT to pardon for Sam Bankman-Fried, the crypto fraudster who stole more than $8 billion of ordinary people’s money
All 100 senators just told Trump
NOT to pardon for Sam Bankman-Fried, the crypto fraudster who stole more than $8 billion of ordinary people’s money. Not one Senator objected.
The Senate passed the resolution Wednesday by unanimous consent, declaring that the convicted FTX founder should “under no circumstances” receive a pardon or commutation.
Why would the Senate need to say this out loud? Because Bankman-Fried is actively trying to buy his way out of jail. In early June he formally filed a clemency application with the Justice Department. His mother has been lobbying for his release, hiring Republican consultants and working connections inside the administration.
And the door isn’t as closed as it should be. Trump said in January he had no plans to pardon him. But during his second term Trump has already handed clemency to a string of crypto figures: Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht, and the BitMEX co-founders. The pattern is exactly why senators wanted this on the record..
The resolution came from a bipartisan pair, Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, the top Democrat and Republican on the Senate’s digital assets subcommittee. Lummis is the crypto industry’s biggest booster in Congress, and even she led the push to keep him in prison.
“He had his day in court,” Lummis said. Gallego was blunter: “Bankman-Fried stole billions from hardworking Americans. He’s a criminal who deserves to stay locked up.”
A jury convicted him in November 2023 on seven counts tied to FTX’s collapse. He moved billions in customer deposits to his own trading firm, Alameda Research, which spent it on trades, venture bets, political donations, and Bahamian real estate. He lost his appeal last month and still insists he’s the victim.
