Republican Allies Warn Trump Against Pardoning SBF

• An ongoing campaign to free SBF, the former CEO of the now-defunct FTX, is gaining significant traction on social media.
• Republican allies urged President Donald Trump not to take the bait.

Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the former CEO of the now-defunct FTX, has been buttering it up with US President Donald Trump. He, via proxy postings and his supporters, has been noticeably working double time to simp at every opportunity to secure a presidential pardon.

However, Trump and his allies are reportedly not buying their antics. Several Republican lawmakers also strongly urged the president to ignore SBF and his supporters.

Republican Lawmakers Oppose the Possibility of Trump Pardoning SBF

Previously, a source within the White House told Forbes that Trump considers a pardon for SBF “a bridge too far.” Hence, the president won’t extend the same privilege he granted to Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht, ex-BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes, and ex-Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao to the convicted FTX boss.

According to Politico, Trump’s allies in Congress are likewise making sure that the president won’t bite into SBF’s bait. Voicing the consensus in the crypto community, Senator Cynthia Lummis, a Republican from Wyoming, has strongly opposed the idea of SBF receiving a pardon.

Lummis, who Crypto Twitter endearingly calls “Crypto Queen,” stated that SBF has “hurt a lot of people.” Therefore, she said the crypto personality should spend time in jail reflecting on the damage he caused the industry and its participants.

House Representative Mike Flood, a Republican serving Nebraska’s 1st congressional district, echoed the same thoughts. He claimed he was surprised by SBF’s campaign for a pardon, because he surely earned his long stay in a federal prison.

SBF’s Active Campaign for a Presidential Pardon

Circulating speculations, most likely spread by SBF and his supporters, recently rattled Trump’s allies and the crypto community. They claimed the former FTX CEO is actively negotiating for a presidential pardon.

To date, the campaign has intensified amid turbulence in the crypto market as it braces for the deep correction phase of the four-year cycle. At the same time, macro events like the US-Iran war have added further selling pressure on risk assets.

One narrative going around is that the crypto community needs someone like SBF to fix the system by re-establishing serious competition against giants like Binance and Coinbase, which have allegedly been rigging markets in their favor. Another popular narrative is that the industry needs a visionary to boost innovation in the crypto sector, recalling how he successfully predicted that artificial intelligence (AI) would dominate markets during his FTX run.

SBF is serving a 25-year federal prison sentence. He is currently asking the court for a retrial, arguing that he has new compelling evidence to reopen the case. It supposedly includes proof that his company was never bankrupt and that his lawyers orchestrated the events leading to the crypto exchange’s downfall.

The post Republican Allies Warn Trump Against Pardoning SBF appeared first on Blockzeit.