SBF continues to seek clemency on the Tucker Carlson podcast
ChainCatcher news, according to Coindesk, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried recently appeared on the Tucker Carlson podcast, marking the latest stop on his media "image rehabilitation tour." During the show, SBF claimed that part of the reason he was sentenced to 25 years in prison was due to his increasingly close ties with the Republican Party before his arrest."In 2020, I was center-left and donated to Biden's campaign," SBF said, "but by the end of 2022, my private donations to the Republican Party were roughly equal to those to the Democrats. This started to become known around the time of the FTX collapse, and it may have played a role."In fact, SBF had donated over $40 million to 196 members of Congress, including senior members of both the Republican and Democratic parties, which accounted for one-third of the legislators receiving funds from him. He also criticized former SEC Chairman Gary Gensler and the regulatory approach to the crypto industry during the interview.A Google document revealed during SBF's trial showed that he had considered various ways to rehabilitate his image, including "publicly criticizing political correctness" and "going on the Tucker Carlson show to declare himself a Republican." This strategy is now being implemented against the backdrop of the Republican Party controlling Washington.Reportedly, SBF's parents—former Stanford Law School professors Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman—are meeting with lawyers and others within Trump's circle, trying to secure a presidential pardon for their son. SBF recently also made comments on social media about the difficulties of layoffs, which were criticized by the crypto community as an attempt to curry favor with the Trump administration.
