TLDR
- A US court gave prosecutors until March 11 to respond to Sam Bankman-Fried’s motion for a new criminal trial
- SBF was convicted on seven felony counts in 2023 and sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud related to FTX’s collapse
- From prison, SBF has been posting pro-Trump messages on X, widely seen as an attempt to win a presidential pardon
- Both Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis and Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren rejected SBF’s public support for the Clarity Act crypto bill
- The White House has repeatedly stated Trump is not considering a pardon for Bankman-Fried
Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the convicted founder of collapsed crypto exchange FTX, is fighting his case on two fronts — and losing ground on both.
A federal judge has given US prosecutors until March 11 to respond to SBF’s motion for a new criminal trial. Judge Lewis Kaplan issued the deadline in a Wednesday filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
SBF was convicted on seven felony counts in 2023. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March 2024 for stealing billions in customer funds through his trading firm Alameda Research.
His lawyers filed an appeal of both the conviction and sentence. As of Thursday, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit had not issued a ruling.
SBF’s new trial motion, filed earlier this month, claims that new witness testimony could strengthen his case. It is separate from the ongoing appeal.
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
Meanwhile, from behind bars, SBF has been active on social media through a proxy. He has posted several times on X in support of President Donald Trump, criticizing what he calls “political bias” in his case.
He also praised the Clarity Act, a proposed crypto market structure bill currently working through Congress. SBF suggested its passage would be a win for Trump.
Someone’s looking for a pardon and doesn’t realize the Clarity Act would have you locked up for much longer than 25 years.
My legislation couldn’t be more different than the bill you tried to buy from Congress over my objection in 2022.
We do not need—nor want—your support. https://t.co/JlywsCh3ry
— Senator Cynthia Lummis (@SenLummis) February 26, 2026
That move backfired. Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis, a known crypto advocate, responded sharply on X. “Someone’s looking for a pardon and doesn’t realize the Clarity Act would have you locked up for much longer than 25 years,” she posted.
Lummis also said her legislation is nothing like the bill SBF allegedly tried to influence in 2022. “We do not need — nor want — your support,” she added.
Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren also pushed back. She called SBF “a fraudster who stole at least $8 billion from customers” and said his endorsement of the Clarity Act should “set off alarm bells.”
The Clarity Act’s odds of being signed into law have dropped about 16% in the past week, according to prediction market Polymarket. It now sits at 69% to pass before the end of the year.
SBF’s pardon hopes also appear dim. The White House has said on multiple occasions that Trump is not considering a pardon, including in a January New York Times interview and again in a Tuesday Fortune report.
Trump has pardoned other crypto figures, including former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao and Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. SBF is not among them.
Former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, who testified against SBF, was released in January after 440 days in custody. Ryan Salame, former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, was sentenced to over seven years and remains in prison.
As of publication, no ruling has been issued on SBF’s appeal, and the March 11 deadline for prosecutors to respond to his new trial motion stands.
