By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Substack
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Aug 1 – Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX was indicted in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, leading to his arrest in the Bahamas on December 12, 2022 and extradition to the US on December 21.
On July 26, the SDNY prosecutors informed Judge Lewis A. Kaplan they are dropping the campaign finance charges against SBF, at the request of the Bahamas.
On July 27, SBF's lawyers cursorily asked Judge Kaplan for "leave to file under seal" documents SBF already gave to the New York Times.
Inner City Press immediately filed opposition to sealing in full. Filed letter on DocumentCloud here.
On August 1 after 8 pm SBF's team filed / got an affidavit from Lawrence Tribe, "I submit this affidavit in an independent capacity as an expert on constitutional law. The views I express are my own and are set forth to address the federal constitutional considerations implicated by the Government’s motion to detain Mr. Samuel Bankman-Fried, see ECF No. 184, and by the requested relief, partially granted in this Court’s temporary order governing extrajudicial statements, see ECF No. 180. My primary goal in writing this affidavit is to respectfully present for judicial consideration what I regard as the correct legal framework to help guide the Court’s inquiry into the potential modification of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s bail." Are you in? Full affidavit on Patreon here
His lawyers, ignoring that DOJ routinely puts on trial inmates without Internet, write "detaining Mr. Bankman-Fried at the Metropolitan Detention Center (“MDC”) would make it impossible for him to fully participate in his defense. As discussed further below, the MDC is currently in a staffing crisis, which will make it impossible for the MDC to provide sufficient access to the discovery, which is unusually voluminous and complex. Moreover, the prison does not permit inmates to have internet access, which will cut off Mr. Bankman-Fried from key parts of the discovery entirely and render the rest effectively unreviewable." Two tier system.
More on Substack here
It previously successfully opposed SBF's bid to seal his co-signers. Watch this site.
Back on July 13, SBF's lawyers sent Judge Kaplan a sealed list of people, not stating even the number of people, for whom the security guard requirement - to show not sharing phones with SBF - should to waived. They argue, as they did with the co-signers, that the list should be sealed. And they say the SDNY prosecutors agree.... Letter on Patreon here
Early on July 14, Inner City Press filed to unseal the list, filing on CourtListener here.
The case is US v. Bankman-Fried, et al., 22-cr-673 (Kaplan)
More with analysis on Substack here
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