President Trump has definitively ruled out any possibility of clemency for Sam Bankman-Fried, closing the door on months of speculation surrounding a potential pardon for the disgraced FTX founder.
In a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times, President Trump said he has no intention of granting pardons to several high-profile figures, explicitly naming Bankman-Fried alongside music executive Sean “Diddy” Combs and former New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez.
The statement marked Trump’s clearest rejection yet of appeals tied to the FTX collapse.
President Donald Trump told The New York Times that he has no plans to pardon former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). SBF was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2023 on fraud and conspiracy charges and is currently appealing the conviction. He donated $5.2 million to the Biden…
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) January 8, 2026
Pardon Efforts Fall Flat
The decision comes despite extensive behind-the-scenes lobbying from Bankman-Fried’s family. His parents, Stanford law professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, had been engaging lawyers and figures connected to Trump’s political circle in an effort to secure relief. Those efforts failed to gain traction.
According to commentary surrounding the decision, Bankman-Fried’s political profile also weighed against him. He was one of the largest donors to the Democratic Party and to Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, a factor widely viewed as damaging to his chances under a Republican administration.
Clear Line Drawn on Crypto Clemency
Trump’s refusal stands in sharp contrast to several crypto-related pardons issued in 2025. He granted clemency to Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht in January, followed by former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes and his co-founders in March. In October, Trump also pardoned Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the former CEO of Binance.
Trump differentiated Bankman-Fried’s case from those actions, saying the FTX founder was not the victim of political targeting or regulatory overreach. Instead, he pointed to convictions tied directly to customer fraud involving billions of dollars.
Bankman-Fried’s Legal Path Narrows
Sam Bankman-Fried is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence following the 2022 collapse of FTX. He is incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island, a low-security facility in Los Angeles.
With a presidential pardon now ruled out, Bankman-Fried’s remaining avenue is the appellate process. His legal team presented arguments to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in November 2025. As of January 2026, a final ruling on that appeal has not yet been issued.
