Trump defined in an interview that he wouldn’t grant clemency to SBF, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Nicolás Maduro, and others.
Hopes of Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) receiving a pardon have been shattered. The US’ president, Donald Trump, confirmed in a current interview with The New York Occasions that he wouldn’t situation a presidential pardon to the imprisoned FTX founder.
The newest remark got here a couple of 12 months after SBF and his dad and mom sought a pardon from the president.
Trump Shatters SBF’s Pardon Hopes
Final 12 months, Trump issued pardons to a number of high-profile crypto figures. These include BitMEX’s Arthur Hayes and Benjamin Delo, Silk Street’s Ross Ulbricht, and Binance’s Changpeng Zhao.
Earlier this 12 months, the notorious Bitfinex hacker, Ilya Lichtenstein, was launched from jail beneath the First Step Act, signed by Trump. This enabled his early launch after serving lower than two months of a five-year sentence.
Amid the pardon spree, SBF started his quest to safe an early launch. Recall that he was arrested and jailed because the mastermind behind the cataclysmic collapse of the once-giant crypto derivatives alternate FTX in late 2022. Since March 2024, he has been serving a 25-year jail sentence.
In February 2025, SBF’s dad and mom sought a pardon for his or her son, in line with stories circulated on the time. The notorious FTX founder has additionally expressed a want to be launched early, when he repeatedly praised Trump’s pardon for the ex-Honduran president, Juan Orlando Hernández (JOH), who was sentenced as a result of cocaine importation.
Nevertheless, Trump has now shattered any hope of clemency for the FTX founder. This means that Bankman-Fried will proceed serving jail time and can solely discover getting a pardon when one other president guidelines the nation.
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Extra Pardon Refusals
Except for SBF, Trump additionally made it clear that he wouldn’t be issuing a presidential pardon to a few people. These embody Sean “Diddy” Combs, an American rapper who was imprisoned for crimes associated to prostitution, and Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s president, who was recently arrested following narco-terrorism crimes.
One other particular person Trump mentioned he wouldn’t grant clemency to is the previous New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez. He’s at the moment serving an 11-year sentence as a result of a bribery cost and performing as a overseas agent.
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