The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is gunning to put Sam Bankman-Fried, the ex-CEO of the now-defunct crypto exchange FTX, behind bars before his trial. In a letter to Judge Lewis A.
Kaplan of the Southern District of New York’s federal court, the DOJ laid out its case, accusing Bankman-Fried of witness tampering and leaking private writings from Caroline Ellison to the New York Times—moves they say trashed her reputation.
The DOJ isn’t buying the defense’s line that yanking Bankman-Fried’s bail would stomp on his free speech rights. They argue he wasn’t just chatting with the press to clear his name—he was sneakily trying to undermine Ellison, a key witness who’s cooperating with the government, while also tugging at the heartstrings of potential jurors. For them, that’s more than enough reason to lock him up until trial.
The drama zeroes in on Ellison’s private journals. Bankman-Fried’s team insists the Times reporter already knew about them, but the DOJ calls baloney—saying he likely tipped off the journalist himself. Prosecutors see it as a calculated jab to dent Ellison’s credibility and sway the jury pool with an emotional twist.
His lawyers, meanwhile, are sweating bullets over the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), where he’d be held. They claim staffing shortages there would kneecap his ability to prep his defense. The DOJ shrugs that off, insisting every inmate at MDC gets a fair shot to work on their case.
With FTX’s collapse still echoing, this clash over Bankman-Fried’s fate is heating up—and the DOJ’s making it clear they’re not playing around.
