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Sam Bankman-Fried thrown into solitary over Tucker Carlson interview: report
- dgfitz 2y ago> the federal agency confirmed to the newspaper that it did not give permission for the interview with Carlson to go forward. I didn’t realize it was so hard to control the freedoms of inmates. I actually thought that was the whole point.
- borski 2y agoThis was actually somewhat clever, but very dishonest. He used a link to the outside that is normally used solely for discussions between inmates and their lawyers; the catch is that on the other end was Tucker, not his lawyer. So SBF kind of snuck the interviewer in under the guise of it being a legal meeting. That’s why the prison got pissed. For a Hail Mary, I get it. But it’s definitely either pardon or not, as a result. He’s not getting out on good behavior any time soon, lol.
- DiscourseFan 2y agoYeah I mean if I were Trump I still wouldn't trust him considering his history
- rs186 2y agoBrave of you to assume what Trump would think. To me any decision could come out of the White House these days. If Trump decides to drop a nuclear bomb in China for no reason, I would not be surprised. Not that it is likely, but I have lowered my expectations enough.
- ForTheKidz 2y ago[flagged]
- bigyabai 2y agoCall himself a neoconservative, and then continue ignoring the law until spectacular damages accrue and his party is forced to denounce him.
- laughing_man 2y agoTrump seems inclined to drop charges or pardon people who he feels were unjustly persecuted by the Biden administration. I don't see any way for Bankman-Fried to make that case.
- ethbr1 2y agoAlso potential sex offenders who are facing both Romanian and UK charges.
- mindslight 2y agoYou don't? Just outright lie and fabricate a narrative where he was unjustly persecuted by the Biden administration - the same as the rest of the Trumpists have done. 140 character attention spans love an underdog story, and 140 characters isn't nearly long enough to reiterate things like why we have laws in the first place.
- dgfitz 2y agoAh I didn’t realize that. Holmes also seemed to try and throw a Hail Mary by this logic. I guess I get it, what else do you have to lose?
- agoodusername63 2y agoWell, building a case for an early release on good behavior is something he definitely burned here. But he's got a long sentence. He can start building that from square one again. Maybe.
- rurp 2y agoGiven that federal convincts don't have parole the good behavior part won't matter for that. But it will mean more solitary and other punitive measures.
- borski 2y agoGood point.
- casenmgreen 2y agoI may be wrong, but on the face of it, to interview with TC says a lot about who and what you are.
- russdill 2y agoOut of all the things SBF has done, who he chooses to interview with is so so so far down there.
- jfengel 2y agoIt actually is quite difficult, outside of solitary confinement. It's not a panopticon. You're not watched closely most of the time. Many violations are ignored. It's likely not a violation they'll allow twice. But it's not at all surprising that it happened once.
- dgfitz 2y agoSeems odd it’s easy for a nationwide interview to happen on the sly in prison. But then again, what do I know?
- randycupertino 2y agoEver since Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht I have been waiting to see if he will also pardon Sam Bankman-Fried and Elizabeth Holmes.
- forinti 2y agoUlbricht had the backing of the libertarians.
- sitkack 2y agoMany things the administration are doing are gifts to crypto bros and libertarians.
- misiti3780 2y agoi never understood why they backed him though?
- toast0 2y agoDon't libertarians like free markets? Why should the government intrude on contracts for drugs or murder?
- ty6853 2y agoThe government literally had to show up for the market for murder, with their own offerings, on silk road before they even were able to attempt to litigate it. We need the government so badly, because if a dark market shows up their informants/agents might solicit murder! Completely circular logic the state used in that case.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- seydor 2y agoWhy? they are fraudsters, which ulrbicht was not. also they have only served a few years
- Trasmatta 2y ago> SBF said in the Thursday episode of Carlson’s show that he doesn’t believe Democrats “saved” him while being prosecuted during the Joe Biden years because they knew he was giving to Republicans as well. He's upset that Democrats didn't let him commit crime just because he donated to them? Holy corruption, Bankman.
- TacticalCoder 2y ago[dead]
- bloopernova 2y agoHe's lying. He's angling for a pardon by playing up to republicans' hatred of democrats/"woke".
- jfengel 2y agoIt's a pretty good tactic.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- nojonestownpls 2y ago> He's upset that Democrats didn't let him commit crime just because he donated to them? Yeah, doesn't he know that you have to be blood-related to the President for that privilege?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- micromacrofoot 2y agothe phenomenon of going right wing after committing crimes so you can find a sympathetic ear feels rather troubling, especially because it seems to work no matter how blatant it is
- javajosh 2y agoWhat better way to "own the libs" than to openly transgress against sacrosanct values? There is a certain power when you demonstrate that shame, consistency, or principle has no hold on you. To avoid the internal backstabbing this would entail, you also need to convince the audience that it's all a kind of kayfabe, make-believe, and that you really ARE principled and trustworthy with your people, or for some short period of time to achieve a goal. It's foolish, but the world is full of foolish people believing simply because it feels good. Reality has no place in this calculus. This is NOT a partisan problem.
- efnx 2y agoI reflexively agree, but what other folks have blantantly switched like this that you know of?
- mizzao 2y agoEric Adams, for one.
- Apocryphon 2y agoRussell Brand
- notahacker 2y agoOddly enough, Russell's political transformation came long before the world's least surprising revelations, probably because he'd got to the point of his "revolution" where the left considered him tiresome and the pandemic was a reboot opportunity. Elon is the starkest example of "journalist contacts him about historic allegations that were never going to amount to anything other than embarrassment and within a couple of hours he's come out as a Republican and therefore rendered himself immune to shame over personal indiscretions of the sort only Teh Wokes care about". Again, trending that way because he was genuinely annoyed at pandemic regulations and not a fan of Teh Wokes but interesting to see how far he's taken it...
- Leary 2y agoOn an EV basis, the worst thing SBF did was probably funding Anthropic and accelerating the demise of humanity.
- dralley 2y agoSam Bankman-Fried's "comeback plan", item #3, as per evidence obtained from his Gmail account: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.590940/gov.uscourts.nysd.590940.410.3_1.pdf https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.59... "Go on Tucker Carlsen, come out as a republican a) While public contributions show one thing, you see another thing including super pacs b) Come out against the woke agenda c) Talk about how the cartel of lawyers is destroying value and throwing entrepreneurs under the bus in order to cover up the incompetence of lawyers"
- bigyabai 2y ago> Talk about how the cartel of lawyers is destroying value Picking a fake fight with lawyers seems like the sort of thing you'd do if you were desperate to go back to jail...
- raverbashing 2y agoYeah It seems SBF had a hard time listening to his laywers, and apparently continues to do so
- jfengel 2y agoWhen you have money, you can always find one lawyer willing to help, and that's all you need. It offends judges, and that's a risk, but most judges try extremely hard to avoid the appearance of favoritism. (I realize that seems unlikely, since the judges we hear about most are selected for their favoritism.) Meantime, hating on lawyers is a popular pastime. It makes you seem sympathetic to people who feel that the government is oppressing them. Which, bizarrely, includes the government right now.
- belter 2y ago[flagged]
- therealpygon 2y agoNo, it transferred to Elon remember?
- javajosh 2y agoSidenote: Voidzilla did a 6 minute video about this interview [1]. Tucker focused on injustice, but not the billions SBF stole from people, but the fact that the people who took SBF's political contributions didn't get him off. The implications seem to be that Tucker values transactional justice rather than unbiased justice. This is a sea-change in American (and indeed Western) jurisprudence that is (to me) some combination of shocking and expected at this point. 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BLzWTRmq2k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BLzWTRmq2k
- ForTheKidz 2y ago[flagged]
- jamespo 2y agoNot really worth noting is it
- ForTheKidz 2y agoIt is if someone thinks that tucker's remarks reflect a change in "jurisprudence".
- skippyboxedhero 2y ago[flagged]
- bigyabai 2y ago> The actual sentence that SBF got was based on the media/political context, not his actual crimes... He was rightfully charged with wire fraud. If you are talking about his campaign contributions, that was one of the only charges he had dropped. It's like arguing that Bernie Madoff should have been treated better because he voted in the last Primary. Your special snowflake ideology does not acquit you from fraud and money laundering charges.
- 2y ago
- spongebobstoes 2y agoI think it's wrong to use solitary as an extra (and extra-judicial) punishment. Prisons should need a strong medical/safety justification for putting prisoners into isolation, which is torturous for many people.
- namuol 2y agoThe story here is that a criminal that stole billions is staging a prison escape through an openly corrupt political administration and their subservient media apparatus.
- borski 2y agoYou’re right. But in this case SBF engaged in an external interview, without permission, over a link normally reserved for access to attorneys. When the interview came out, it’s safe to assume the prison had no idea how it happened. He was in solitary for 24 hours, possibly so they could ensure there were no smartphones or anything else. It also may have been just to punish him. But there’s at least one reasonable reason, given that it was only 24 hours.
- almostgotcaught 2y ago[flagged]
- aaomidi 2y agoAlso like, why should prisoners need to ask permission before they give interviews? That seems like a super easy way to create an abusive situation? Also, yeah, anyone thinking 24 hours in solitary is no big deal -- spend a weekend trying it for yourself. Look up the conditions, and mimic it to the best of your ability and see how it goes.
- southernplaces7 2y agoWhile I think prolonged solitary confinement is genuinely harsh punishment, i'm ambivalent about banning it, because there really are prisoners who will take advantage of any weakness in communications control to wreak serious havoc in the outside world, and they can be incredibly ingenious about it unless totally locked down. Also, as someone who has spent more than 24 hours in solitary confinement, I can say that doing it for a full day is pretty mild. You contemplate, use the toilet as needed, eat what's given to you, sleep and the time passes pretty quickly unless you're also being abused in some other way such as temperature extremes or having your clothes removed (I've had to deal with both and they make even brief solitary much worse) Doing it for long stretches is a different story of course, but a day or two without "special" and basically abusive measures as mentioned above is very mild unless you have one very pathological aversion to any solitude. Claustrophobia could be a factor too but since prison is a confined place either way, it never fully stops applying (though Solitary cells are more claustrophobic than prison living outside of full lockdown.)
- maxbond 2y agoIf Bankman-Fried does somehow get a pardon, I will be amazed that the bitter debate on HN about whether he would get off scott free or would be thrown in prison somehow resulted in both parties being correct.
- misiti3780 2y agowhy would trump pardon him - he donated to mostly democratic causes and openly hated trump (was going to pay him 5B to not run reportedly)
- pavlov 2y agoYou don’t understand Trump’s transactional instinct. If this guy offered to pay him $5B at some point, maybe he will have a better offer later? It’s best to pardon him and see what he comes up with. As long as he’s motivated by “how can I pay more money to DJT,” it doesn’t matter who else he tried to bribe.
- maxbond 2y agoI doubt he will, I'd think it would be to curry favor with the crypto crowd, but I don't think they have a lot of love for Bankman-Fried. But it's a spicy administration so it's not a 0% chance. Maybe a 1% to 5% chance.
- kelnos 2y agoWhile Trump is clearly a vengeful person who holds grudges, I do believe if he sees a good deal in front of him, he'll set those feelings aside. Whether or not pardoning SBF would be a good deal for him is another question, though.
- rurp 2y agoI don't know if Trump will pardon him but I also wouldn't be surprised. Doing things simply to spite liberals, no matter how stupid they are, is one of his few guiding principles. Most liberals correctly think the SBF should be in prison and some percentage would get vocally upset about a blatant criminal walking free for no reason. It's not the strongest case for SBF so I don't know if it will happen, but I'd put it at more like 30-40% than the something like 1-5%.
- aprilthird2021 2y agoI really wonder if the whole insolvency and locking up customer funds thing happened which led to the revelation of fraud etc. If that happened now, with Trump in office. Would he have just not been arrested, indicted, convicted, etc.?
- outer_web 2y agoGiven the measurable shift away from consumer protection and prosecution of corporate greed as well as the micromanagement of the DOJ, I think the answer is "in that hypothetical situation, what would SBF have to offer the White House?" Of course, with the DOJ RIFs and brain drain it's uncertain he could be successfully prosecuted.
- tcj_phx 2y agoThe most important line in this interview was at about 33:00: “The hardest thing is not having something meaningful to do in here”. https://x.com/tuckercarlson/status/1897709140535132442 https://x.com/tuckercarlson/status/1897709140535132442 Prolonged use of Solitary confinement is a humans right abuse: https://www.aclu.org/documents/abuse-human-rights-prisoners-united-states-solitary-confinement https://www.aclu.org/documents/abuse-human-rights-prisoners-... Prison is mostly just warehousing people for a prescribed amount of time. I've read that people start to develop PTSD after about 7 days of confinement. Sometimes incarceration is all you can do with violent people and fraudsters. I'm sure most inmates are deteriorated by their 'correction'. My friend would rather be in jail than in a psych ward, so that's one positive take on incarceration. [I have videos proving she was misdiagnosed. Arizona's psych wards implement an obsolete approach to 'mental health', using palliative drugs. In 2022 Chris Palmer published his book about the 80 years of science establishing that mental disorders are caused by metabolic problems, but the standard of care is still palliative treatment.]
- 6stringmerc 2y agoAs an inmate in a terrible county jail who chose solitary confinement for mental health reasons - and to avoid the 4 Tray Crips who effectively run general population in Tarrant County Corrections - I’m glad he’s going in. I have several stories of hearing entitled and “tough” men absolutely crumble when forced to sit out punishment in that environment. There’s a recent phrase that goes “fuck around and find out” which totally fits here. Yes, solitary confinement is akin to forced mental distress in most incarceration systems. No, it’s not randomly doled out. The fact remains if he wanted to do an interview with Tucker Carlson he could have accomplished it in writing using the mail. He chose not to do so. No sympathy here.
- sebmellen 2y agoI live in Tarrant County. I’ve heard horrible things about the deaths in our county jail. Maybe slightly off topic, but anything you can share from your time there?
- 6stringmerc 2y agoYes and I’m working in earnest to write it up on my Medium account (in profile). The Corrections Officers are legitimately over worked and in numerous chats I found 3 of 5 officers highly disapprove of Sheriff Waybourn’s handling of the department. This includes Sheriff Deputies tasked with Warrant Enforcement pulling Medical Transport duty. I am a handicapped person with an incurable chronic blood condition. The standard of care at TCC, via contract with JPS, is appalling. When I had blood pouring out of my mouth / skull from improper after care treatment following a tooth extraction, the responding “Nurse” brought two (2) Tylenol and mouth rinse and a gauze pad. Only due to a favor by the 3rd shift guards was I able to be sent over to the Tower (I was in Lon Evans) to be seen by a Provider and get my necessary medication to stop the bleeding. The staff completely disregarded the documented / listed after care protocol written in my file by the Specialist at JPS. Furthermore, between January and February of 2024 I lost 25 pounds - to 124.6 from 150 at 5’7” - because they refused to acknowledge my daily repeat vomiting from a bacterial infection was deserving treatment. It’s a frustrating situation to be in for sure, but I hope by appropriately documenting my suffering and pain, something positive may be done about Sheriff Bill’s “they deserve to be abused” espoused mentality. Thank you for being concerned, I do mean that!
- tempodox 2y ago> SBF blamed his erratic appearance in old interviews on being distracted by tech devices. Really, the excuses this guy is throwing around remind me of little children. > Carlson kept acting throughout the interview as though it’s just normal and reasonable for wealthy people who donate to politicians to expect corrupt favors from those same people in their time of need. That's just being realistic, isn't it?
- majormajor 2y ago> > Carlson kept acting throughout the interview as though it’s just normal and reasonable for wealthy people who donate to politicians to expect corrupt favors from those same people in their time of need. > That's just being realistic, isn't it? For Carlson - a wealthy politically connected person who I would be unsurprised if he is the recipient of favor - I'm sure it's realistic. But there are more of us who don't have the wealth or political connections to get favors than there are those who do. So it's weird that people who claim to care about corruption keep voting for and snuggling up to extremely wealthy obviously-favor-trading conmen. The president doesn't even try to hide the games. So after that it's unsurprising that someone like Carlson is starting to drop the pretense too. Will the people he gets his power from - his audience - care, though?
- generalizations 2y agoWouldn't 'acting surprised' at such things be merely performative? I don't think anyone in this thread is surprised either.
- AnthonyMouse 2y agoThe general problem is that honest politicians are uncommon. If you have to choose between corrupt politician who is going to do X and corrupt politician who is going to do Y then you're going to choose on the basis of X and Y rather than corruption because "honest politician" isn't on the ballot. Go ahead and change that if you can figure out how.
- ccorcos 2y ago
- Molitor5901 2y agoI despise the snot but solitary confinement should only be used for the most egregious, violent offenders. Throwing someone in the "hole" for such a minor thing is inhuman. Solitary should be outlawed.
- xiphias2 2y agoBy stealing billions of dollars he destroyed more people than the worst repeated violent offenders. Also he's clearly paying politicians off. In my opinion he should be categorized in the worst category even just looking at the lost thousands of years because people won't be able to pay medical bills because of him.
- kelnos 2y agoBe that as it may, psychological torture is wrong.
- xiphias2 2y agoI believe the torture word shouldn't be used here because that's something much much worse that I wouldn't want anybody to experience. But it's clear that he isn't punished enough and got away with an easy fake prison if he's still commiting crimes.
- voxadam 2y agoSolitary confinement as punitive measure is most certainly cruel, unfortunately it's far from unusual, at least in the United States. SBF is beyond loathsome but he should still be treated humanely.
- rwmj 2y agoIs there a chance the constitution will be changed after all this so the president can't pardon people?
- dragonwriter 2y agoIt is unlikely that any amendment to the Constitution that would pass (or even a new order of government instituted without amending the Constitution, e.g., by autocoup or violent revolution) would eliminate the pardon power, though it is somewhat more plausible that it might be made either subject to some kind of after-issue review or made non-unilateral, either generally or in particular circumstances.
- ycombinatrix 2y agoJoe Arpaio was pardoned in Trump's first term. Nobody is gonna change anything.
- toast0 2y agoThe president can only pardon for federal crimes. I imagine if/when people are tired of federal pardons, that many things will become both state crimes and federal crimes, where that's possible. Some crimes clearly fit only under the federal umbrella, but some are meerly not currently addressed by state law because federal law was seen as sufficient. There's a recent supreme court decision that says trying someone for the same conduct in state and federal courts is fine [1], so it just becomes a question of if the federally pardoned conduct also violates a state law of a state that's relevant. In this case, where the victims are numerous, if SBF were pardoned, the question would be do any of the 50 states have a fraud law that was violated. Or indeed, if any other countries do and if they can get an extradition arranged. I don't know if a federal pardon would prevent US cooperation in extradition? [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamble_v._United_States https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamble_v._United_States
- Ankaios 2y agoHere's a proposal for an amendment restricting the pardon power: https://cohen.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congressman-cohen-reintroduces-amendment-constitution-clarify-and-limit https://cohen.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congress... Here's the proposed text: SECTION 1. The President shall not have the power to grant pardons and reprieves to— (1) the President’s self; (2) any person, up to a third degree relation, of the President, or a spouse thereof; (3) any current or former member of the President’s administration; (4) any person who worked on the President’s presidential campaign as a paid employee; (5) any person or entity for an offense that was motivated by a direct and significant personal or pecuniary interest of any of the foregoing persons; or (6) any person or entity for an offense that was at the direction of, or in coordination with, the President. Any pardon issued for a corrupt purpose shall be invalid. SECTION 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
- waltercool 2y ago[dead]
- tw1231283 2y agoCrypto czar David Sacks was in favor of the Silicon Valley Bank bailout but spoke against SBF in 2022, when SBF was believed to be a Democrat. Otherwise there would be a good chance of making gambling with customer money legal (which is what the Silicon Valley Bank did) and SBF could co-chair the Sovereign Bitcoin Reserve together with DPR.
- slimebot80 2y agoWell after Tucker fluffed Putin, kinda makes me wonder if they put the right person in solitary.
- takeda 2y agoAdams, Tate now this, looks like the administration is looking for best scammers they can find.
- springwilli 2y ago[dead]