SBF Says He Was Shocked By Democrats’ Crypto Stance Prior to FTX Collapse

Between his current social posts referring to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an interview with The New York Sun and his dialog with conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried appears to be trying a media rehabilitation tour.

Bankman-Fried prompt to Carlson on Thursday that one of many causes he’d been given a harsh jail sentence was as a result of he was getting nearer to the Republican Party within the lead-up to his arrest.

“One fact that might be relevant. In 2020 I was center-left and I gave to Biden’s campaign,” he said. “I was optimistic he’d be a sort of solid center-left President. I spent the next few years in [Washington] DC a lot. I made dozens of trips there, and was really, really shocked by what I saw, not in a good direction, from the administration.”

“By late 2022 I was giving to Republicans privately as much as Democrats. And that started becoming known right around FTX’s collapse, so that probably played a role,” Bankman-Fried added.

Bankman-Fried was discovered responsible of a number of fees of fraud and conspiracy in March 2024 and sentenced to 25 years in jail. He revamped $40 million in political donations to 196 members of Congress, including former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and former Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). In other words, 1 in 3 lawmakers took money from him.

Read more: Congress’ FTX Problem: 1 in 3 Members Got Cash From Crypto Exchange’s Bosses

During Bankman-Fried’s lengthy trial, it was revealed that he’d mulled a number of potential ways to rehab his public image following the collapse of FTX. An undated Google Doc listed ideas such as “come out towards the woke agenda” and “Go on Tucker Carlsen, come out as a republican.” With the GOP now firmly in power in D.C., the latter idea has now seemingly come to fruition.

Bankman-Fried told Carlson that he’d never expected a whole lot from the Democrats but that he believed some lawmakers would prove thoughtful in both political parties. He criticized former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler, calling the agency “something out of a nightmare” during his tenure due to difficulties for crypto companies to come in and register.

Asked by Carlson whether he’d called in any favors from political figures during his trial, Bankman-Fried denied it. However, the 33-year-old’s parents, former Stanford Law School professors Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman, have reportedly been meeting with lawyers and other people in U.S. President Donald Trump’s orbit in an attempt to secure their son a presidential pardon.

“There’s a long story there. It involves a law firm that took a pretty unusual and active role in the case, before I even gave up control of FTX, before it was ever filed for bankruptcy, the DOJ had already made up its mind.”

The Google Doc unveiled during Bankman-Fried’s trial also suggested he was planning to “speak about how the cartel of attorneys is destroying worth and throwing entrepreneurs below the bus so as to cowl up the incompetence of attorneys.”

Bankman-Fried lately posted a sequence of messages on social media in regards to the difficulties of firing workers, in reference to the firings enacted by DOGE. Bankman-Fried was criticized by the crypto neighborhood for the posts, which had been perceived as an try to ingratiate himself with the Trump administration.