SBF Files Pardon Bid Despite Trump Saying He Wouldn't
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- Sam Bankman-Fried filed a 'pardon after completion of sentence' application with the Department of Justice, joining a backlog of more than 20,000 pending pardon and commutation requests tracked by the Office of the Pardon Attorney.
- Bankman-Fried is two years into a 25-year federal sentence after being convicted on multiple fraud charges stemming from the 2022 collapse of his crypto exchange FTX and sister firm Alameda Research.
- The 34-year-old is separately appealing his conviction and has long maintained his innocence — but he did not seek a commutation, meaning the pardon would not shorten his time behind bars.
- President Trump indicated earlier this year, when asked directly, that he would not pardon Bankman-Fried, even as he has issued pardons in his second term to January 6 participants, former staff, a dark web marketplace founder, and Binance's leader.
- A White House representative declined to comment on the application, and Bankman-Fried's lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
Why it matters: Trump indicated earlier this year he would not pardon Bankman-Fried, and the request joins a backlog of more than 20,000 pending applications. A commutation — which SBF did not seek — would have shortened his 25-year sentence; a pardon only erases the conviction after he serves it.
