Sam Bankman Fried’s Attempts to Influence Witnesses Shows He Must Be Jailed Before Trial: DOJ

US prosecutors have requested that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s bail be revoked and sent to jail ahead of his October trial. They allege that he repeatedly attempted to influence testimonies and that his detention conditions were insufficient to ensure public safety.

Prosecutors for the Justice Department on Friday filed a written statement in federal court in response to their announcement Wednesday that they wanted Bankman-Fried “incarcerated” for accessing the diaries of former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison , shared with the New York Times.

The DOJ said that Bankman-Fried’s release of Ellison’s writings was an attempt to harass her to prevent or influence her testimony in court.

The filing states that “the defendant’s leaking of Ellison’s private writings was another example of the defendant attempting to intimidate and corruptly persuade Ellison of her forthcoming testimony. It is also an attempt to influence or stop the testimony of potential trial witnesses “by creating a specter of their most intimate affairs to be reported in a newspaper,” it said.

The DOJ stated that while Bankman-Fried had the right to publicly defend himself, as his attorney Mark Cohen claimed in his Times interview, sharing the diary information went beyond making a reasonable comment.

The filing states: “What the defendant did and may not have done is corruptly influencing witnesses and interfering with a fair trial through public harassment and shaming.”

During a hearing on On Wednesday, Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District Court of New York ordered prosecutors and the defense to prepare official documents relating to the Justice Department’s decision to arrest Bankman Fried. The defense has until Tuesday to respond.

Bankman-Fried’s trial is scheduled to begin on October 2, 2023.