Crypto Fraudster’s Mom Pleads With Trump To Free Son On CNN — By Comparing To Trump Sexual Abuse Trial

The parents of convicted crypto fraudster Sam Bankamn-Fried went on CNN on Saturday for their first sit-down TV interview, and they made a unique plea to President Donald Trump.

Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman both joined CNN’s Michael Smerconish for an emotional sit-down where they discussed their 34-year-old son who is currently serving a 25-year sentence over fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy charges. Bankman-Fried’s parents both maintained the innocence of their son, who has requested a new trial and new judge.

The judge who presided over Bankman-Fried’s case is a name that will be familiar to Trump: Judge Lewis Kaplan. The New York judge presided over a civil jury trial in which Trump was found liable for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll.

The fact that Bankman-Fried and Trump have problems with the same judge, Smerconish noted, is “not lost on them.”

Asked if she had a message for the president, Fried took a long pause and compared her son’s trial to Trump’s under Kaplan.

She said:

I think that Sam was the victim of an out of control prosecution and I know that Trump himself feels he was. I would say also that Sam is of the most brilliant, talented young men of his generation and the amount of good he can do in this world if he is free to live a life of — the life he wants he wants would be an enormous benefit to the economy, to a lot of things Trump cares about in this world, and that he ought to regard Sam as a huge asset going forward for the country.

Bankman-Fried found himself in trouble in 2022 when his crypto exchange FTX could not cover withdrawals from customers. Prosecutors alleged Bankman-Fried was illegally moving money between two companies.

Bankman-Fried’s parents, both Stanford professors, both did some work with their son and FTX, with his mother advising on political contributions and his father working as a paid consultant.

“I got to do wonderful charity work with Sam. I didn’t get involved in the business operations. You know, we do have to say that when you say, what did you know relative to the fraud, there’s an appeal on the case, but we don’t think it’s fraud,” Bankman said.

Fried called her son’s prosecution “political” and accused former President Joe Biden’s administration of deliberately sabotaging the crypto industry.

“Instead of simply announcing, we are not going to legalize it and, in fact, here’s how we’re going to punish it, they quite deliberately tried to sabotage the industry behind the scenes and prevent efforts to legalize it, license it, regulate it,” she said.

Watch above via CNN.

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