4 ms·

Sam Bankman-Fried applies for a pardon from Trump

101 points by pseudolus 4mo ago

jihadjihad 4mo ago
> Trump has pardoned a number of people who have donated large sums to his political campaigns. It will be interesting to see how he'll be able to spin his well-documented donations to Democratic causes and sell that to the current administration: "He personally gave at least $40 million to politicians and political action committees ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, mostly to Democrats and liberal-leaning groups, making him the second overall top donor to Democrats, only behind George Soros, according to the Center for Responsive Politics" [0]. 0: https://time.com/6241262/sam-bankman-fried-political-donations/ https://time.com/6241262/sam-bankman-fried-political-donatio...
- bdcravens 4mo ago
  By finding a way to get at least $41 million to the other side
- cosmicgadget 4mo ago
  You can call Trump "America's Hitler" and end up the VP pick. All that matters is bending the knee.
  - lukan 4mo ago
    The question is, if he would see it really as an insult. Hitler was pretty successful in the beginning and did rise to the top against many odds and breaking conventions. (unlike Trump, he was not born rich, though)
- jalapenoj 4mo ago
  [flagged]
Animats 4mo ago
Does the White House take Visa for pardons?
- iso1631 4mo ago
  [flagged]
  - pstuart 4mo ago
    Likely TrumpCoin is the correct answer.
    - lostmsu 4mo ago
      Why would he want it back?
      - CyberDildonics 4mo ago
        [dead]
    - ecocentrik 4mo ago
      Gold bars are his top preference.
Tangurena2 4mo ago
Staff working for Giuliani reported that pardons cost $2,000,000.
- raised_hand 4mo ago
  that's it? seems low
  - andrewstuart 4mo ago
    Its volume pricing.
  - legitster 4mo ago
    It's important to remember that Trump was actually relatively cash poor when he ran for president. If you get rid of all his insane statements about his own wealth, his entire fortune boils down to a skyscraper, a resort, and a handful of piddling licensing deals. His realistic net worth was probably closer to, $500 million and the annual discretionary free cash flow closer to $20 - $40 million. So, yeah. A single $2 million dollar ... erm... "emolument" would be something like 5-10% of his annual cashflow for a year. He might have taken over a 100 of these - that's a substantial boon!
- asdff 4mo ago
  If it were that cheap Sean Combs would be a free man. They probably increase the expected bribe based on your perceived ability to pay.
  - mattbillenstein 4mo ago
    It's probably as much about PR as it is about money - Puffy is a heavy lift on the PR side...
    - masfuerte 4mo ago
      Giuliani was hawking pardons in the final days of Trump's first term. I'd expect that Trump will be much more interested in money than PR in the final days of his second term too. But he might not live that long, which must be excruciating if you're a wealthy crook.
askonomm 4mo ago
[flagged]
beastman82 4mo ago
Unless he's the only rich person on earth who can't figure out how to bribe, this will happen.
- forinti 4mo ago
  He spent a lot of money on political donations. I don't think it was from the goodness of his heart.
  - JeremyNT 4mo ago
    The problem for poor SBF is that he donated to the President's opponents, so presumably he'll need to pay a higher rate for his pardon.
josefritzishere 4mo ago
[flagged]
- perryh2 4mo ago
  Check Polymarket
  - josefritzishere 4mo ago
    I avoid that website like malware, but point taken. Even if it's a given some fool will play those odds.
b0sk 4mo ago
Remember Sam -- Trevor Milton got a pardon via hiring Pam Bondi's brother as his lawyer.
ortusdux 4mo ago
Do pardons require a full confession?
- margalabargala 4mo ago
  No. Furthermore, they don't even need to name a specific crime, a person can be pardoned for "any crimes committed in this period" etc.
- nickff 4mo ago
  No; there have been a number of (controversial) pardons for people who were either not charged or had not been convicted. Gerald Ford set something of a precedent by pardoning Richard Nixon for activities related to the Watergate cover-up, and Joe Biden pre-emptively pardoned his whole family. These applications of the pardon power have been controversial, but never successfully challenged.
- wl 4mo ago
  There's this notion from the Supreme Court case Burdick v. United States (1915) that accepting a pardon is an implicit admission of guilt. Therefore, a person can refuse a pardon. There isn't anything in the decision to justify the argument that accepting the pardon is an admission of guilt, it's just stated as a fact. It seems at odds with situations where pardons have been used to correct miscarriages of justice in cases of factual innocence.
  - Maxatar 4mo ago
    Just to clarify, a pardon in the ordinary sense can't be refused. If you're imprisoned and the President pardon's you, you can't decide to refuse the pardon and remain in prison. As soon as the pardon is granted you are released, whether you like it or not, whether you "accept" it or not. The Burdick case had to do with an individual who had not yet been convicted of anything being offered a pardon in exchange for testimony that could have otherwise incriminated him. The Supreme Court ruled that in that specific scenario someone accepting a pardon could be seen as admitting guilt, so the pardon couldn't be forced on Burdick to strip away his fifth amendment right and compel his testimony.
tptacek 4mo ago
This story doesn't mean anything. SBF has been "seeking" a pardon for over a year now. There's no due process consideration for obtaining a pardon; "applying" for one doesn't get you anything more than asking for one on Twitter would --- given the current administration, asking on Twitter might get you further! I don't think SBF's case is slipping the administration's mind.
- kgwxd 4mo ago
  > given the current administration, asking on Twitter might get you further! Doesn't matter how you "apply", as long as the cash is received.
- tim333 4mo ago
  Maybe you apply to Trump's sons with a proposal as to how to enrich their crypto ventures?
  - codeddesign 4mo ago
    As I recall, Biden pardoned all of his family members. If you think corruption is a single party issue, your bias itself is corrupted over basic logic
    - watwut 4mo ago
      Nice talking point, but no, the difference between the parties is staggering and growing. And what Biden did is not even remotely comparable to what Trump does with full support of conservatives and republicans.
yalogin 4mo ago
I was expecting this to be done by now as the administration is not worried about optics, so not sure what’s holding it up.
- Maxatar 4mo ago
  Unlike CZ, who made Trump and his family hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars, SBF has absolutely nothing to offer Trump. He's broke and a complete outcast. Ross Ulbricht became a cause celebre among libertarians, but SBF was always genuinely despised by pretty much everyone.
  - evan_ 4mo ago
    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly1qrl9l1qo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly1qrl9l1qo CZ pardon- for reference
  - bpodgursky 4mo ago
    Don't be a clown. If SBF was out of jail he could raise a twenty billion dollar fund tomorrow. His Anthropic investment alone would give him credibility. If it hadn't been liquidated for pennies FTX would have been one of the best performing funds of all time, even with the theft and mismanagement.
    - themafia 4mo ago
      > FTX would have been one of the best performing funds of all time Ponzi schemes often have that feature. Right up until the bottom completely falls out.
      - bpodgursky 4mo ago
        It wasn't a Ponzi scheme. You really need to read up before commenting. It was a wildly successful fund he used as a slush fund for other projects. There's no mechanism for FTX to collapse unless Anthropic among other projects collapses to zero.
cdrnsf 4mo ago
[flagged]
AgentME 4mo ago
This isn't that surprising after it was reported on that he had notes about claiming to "come out as a Republican and against the woke agenda" as a PR plan to defend himself. (https://gizmodo.com/sbf-floated-coming-out-republican-tucker-carlson-1851340731 https://gizmodo.com/sbf-floated-coming-out-republican-tucker...) I wonder if Trump is selling pardons and whether SBF still has the means for it. It's depressing that the US's state of affairs is such that this might be a workable strategy for him.
LZ_Khan 4mo ago
L O L
mattas 4mo ago
I had no idea there was an _application_ you could fill out for a pardon.
christoff12 4mo ago
I'm surprised it's taken this long.
MagicMoonlight 4mo ago
[dead]
kachoio 4mo ago
Help Trump launch another meme coin and he’s out
- Animats 4mo ago
  SBF offering to manage Trump's meme coins might appeal to Trump. They've crashed. [1][2] Trump's stablecoin was just delisted a few hours ago, as part of a strange dispute.[3] [1] https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/official-trump/ https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/official-trump/ [2] https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/melania-meme/ https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/melania-meme/ [3] https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/usd1/ https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/usd1/
Yizahi 4mo ago
Well, he knows the price for this service - you donate 2 billion real USD to Mr. Orange private shittoken scam "fund" and you go free. He should scrounge his pockets or ask his cronies to prepare a required fee. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/23/pardon-binance-founder-cz-trump.html https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/23/pardon-binance-founder-cz-tr...

101 points by pseudolus 4mo ago

> Trump has pardoned a number of people who have donated large sums to his political campaigns. It will be interesting to see how he'll be able to spin his well-documented donations to Democratic causes and sell that to the current administration: "He personally gave at least $40 million to politicians and political action committees ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, mostly to Democrats and liberal-leaning groups, making him the second overall top donor to Democrats, only behind George Soros, according to the Center for Responsive Politics" [0]. 0: https://time.com/6241262/sam-bankman-fried-political-donations/ https://time.com/6241262/sam-bankman-fried-political-donatio...

bdcravens 4mo ago
By finding a way to get at least $41 million to the other side
cosmicgadget 4mo ago
You can call Trump "America's Hitler" and end up the VP pick. All that matters is bending the knee.
- lukan 4mo ago
  The question is, if he would see it really as an insult. Hitler was pretty successful in the beginning and did rise to the top against many odds and breaking conventions. (unlike Trump, he was not born rich, though)
jalapenoj 4mo ago
[flagged]

Animats 4mo ago

Does the White House take Visa for pardons?

iso1631 4mo ago
[flagged]
- pstuart 4mo ago
  Likely TrumpCoin is the correct answer.
  - lostmsu 4mo ago
    Why would he want it back?
    - CyberDildonics 4mo ago
      [dead]
  - ecocentrik 4mo ago
    Gold bars are his top preference.

Tangurena2 4mo ago

Staff working for Giuliani reported that pardons cost $2,000,000.

raised_hand 4mo ago
that's it? seems low
- andrewstuart 4mo ago
  Its volume pricing.
- legitster 4mo ago
  It's important to remember that Trump was actually relatively cash poor when he ran for president. If you get rid of all his insane statements about his own wealth, his entire fortune boils down to a skyscraper, a resort, and a handful of piddling licensing deals. His realistic net worth was probably closer to, $500 million and the annual discretionary free cash flow closer to $20 - $40 million. So, yeah. A single $2 million dollar ... erm... "emolument" would be something like 5-10% of his annual cashflow for a year. He might have taken over a 100 of these - that's a substantial boon!
asdff 4mo ago
If it were that cheap Sean Combs would be a free man. They probably increase the expected bribe based on your perceived ability to pay.
- mattbillenstein 4mo ago
  It's probably as much about PR as it is about money - Puffy is a heavy lift on the PR side...
  - masfuerte 4mo ago
    Giuliani was hawking pardons in the final days of Trump's first term. I'd expect that Trump will be much more interested in money than PR in the final days of his second term too. But he might not live that long, which must be excruciating if you're a wealthy crook.

askonomm 4mo ago

[flagged]

beastman82 4mo ago

Unless he's the only rich person on earth who can't figure out how to bribe, this will happen.

forinti 4mo ago
He spent a lot of money on political donations. I don't think it was from the goodness of his heart.
- JeremyNT 4mo ago
  The problem for poor SBF is that he donated to the President's opponents, so presumably he'll need to pay a higher rate for his pardon.

josefritzishere 4mo ago

[flagged]

perryh2 4mo ago
Check Polymarket
- josefritzishere 4mo ago
  I avoid that website like malware, but point taken. Even if it's a given some fool will play those odds.

b0sk 4mo ago

Remember Sam -- Trevor Milton got a pardon via hiring Pam Bondi's brother as his lawyer.

ortusdux 4mo ago

Do pardons require a full confession?

margalabargala 4mo ago
No. Furthermore, they don't even need to name a specific crime, a person can be pardoned for "any crimes committed in this period" etc.
nickff 4mo ago
No; there have been a number of (controversial) pardons for people who were either not charged or had not been convicted. Gerald Ford set something of a precedent by pardoning Richard Nixon for activities related to the Watergate cover-up, and Joe Biden pre-emptively pardoned his whole family. These applications of the pardon power have been controversial, but never successfully challenged.
wl 4mo ago
There's this notion from the Supreme Court case Burdick v. United States (1915) that accepting a pardon is an implicit admission of guilt. Therefore, a person can refuse a pardon. There isn't anything in the decision to justify the argument that accepting the pardon is an admission of guilt, it's just stated as a fact. It seems at odds with situations where pardons have been used to correct miscarriages of justice in cases of factual innocence.
- Maxatar 4mo ago
  Just to clarify, a pardon in the ordinary sense can't be refused. If you're imprisoned and the President pardon's you, you can't decide to refuse the pardon and remain in prison. As soon as the pardon is granted you are released, whether you like it or not, whether you "accept" it or not. The Burdick case had to do with an individual who had not yet been convicted of anything being offered a pardon in exchange for testimony that could have otherwise incriminated him. The Supreme Court ruled that in that specific scenario someone accepting a pardon could be seen as admitting guilt, so the pardon couldn't be forced on Burdick to strip away his fifth amendment right and compel his testimony.

tptacek 4mo ago

This story doesn't mean anything. SBF has been "seeking" a pardon for over a year now. There's no due process consideration for obtaining a pardon; "applying" for one doesn't get you anything more than asking for one on Twitter would --- given the current administration, asking on Twitter might get you further! I don't think SBF's case is slipping the administration's mind.

kgwxd 4mo ago
> given the current administration, asking on Twitter might get you further! Doesn't matter how you "apply", as long as the cash is received.
tim333 4mo ago
Maybe you apply to Trump's sons with a proposal as to how to enrich their crypto ventures?
- codeddesign 4mo ago
  As I recall, Biden pardoned all of his family members. If you think corruption is a single party issue, your bias itself is corrupted over basic logic
  - watwut 4mo ago
    Nice talking point, but no, the difference between the parties is staggering and growing. And what Biden did is not even remotely comparable to what Trump does with full support of conservatives and republicans.

yalogin 4mo ago

I was expecting this to be done by now as the administration is not worried about optics, so not sure what’s holding it up.

Maxatar 4mo ago
Unlike CZ, who made Trump and his family hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars, SBF has absolutely nothing to offer Trump. He's broke and a complete outcast. Ross Ulbricht became a cause celebre among libertarians, but SBF was always genuinely despised by pretty much everyone.
- evan_ 4mo ago
  https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly1qrl9l1qo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly1qrl9l1qo CZ pardon- for reference
- bpodgursky 4mo ago
  Don't be a clown. If SBF was out of jail he could raise a twenty billion dollar fund tomorrow. His Anthropic investment alone would give him credibility. If it hadn't been liquidated for pennies FTX would have been one of the best performing funds of all time, even with the theft and mismanagement.
  - themafia 4mo ago
    > FTX would have been one of the best performing funds of all time Ponzi schemes often have that feature. Right up until the bottom completely falls out.
    - bpodgursky 4mo ago
      It wasn't a Ponzi scheme. You really need to read up before commenting. It was a wildly successful fund he used as a slush fund for other projects. There's no mechanism for FTX to collapse unless Anthropic among other projects collapses to zero.

cdrnsf 4mo ago

[flagged]

AgentME 4mo ago

This isn't that surprising after it was reported on that he had notes about claiming to "come out as a Republican and against the woke agenda" as a PR plan to defend himself. (https://gizmodo.com/sbf-floated-coming-out-republican-tucker-carlson-1851340731 https://gizmodo.com/sbf-floated-coming-out-republican-tucker...) I wonder if Trump is selling pardons and whether SBF still has the means for it. It's depressing that the US's state of affairs is such that this might be a workable strategy for him.

LZ_Khan 4mo ago

L O L

mattas 4mo ago

I had no idea there was an _application_ you could fill out for a pardon.

christoff12 4mo ago

I'm surprised it's taken this long.

MagicMoonlight 4mo ago

[dead]

kachoio 4mo ago

Help Trump launch another meme coin and he’s out

Animats 4mo ago
SBF offering to manage Trump's meme coins might appeal to Trump. They've crashed. [1][2] Trump's stablecoin was just delisted a few hours ago, as part of a strange dispute.[3] [1] https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/official-trump/ https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/official-trump/ [2] https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/melania-meme/ https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/melania-meme/ [3] https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/usd1/ https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/usd1/

Yizahi 4mo ago

Well, he knows the price for this service - you donate 2 billion real USD to Mr. Orange private shittoken scam "fund" and you go free. He should scrounge his pockets or ask his cronies to prepare a required fee. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/23/pardon-binance-founder-cz-trump.html https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/23/pardon-binance-founder-cz-tr...