Legal professionals for Sam Bankman-Fried have denied that he tried to intimidate witnesses in his felony trial by speaking to New York Occasions reporters and argued there is no such thing as a motive to jail him.
In an Aug. 1 letter to Choose Lewis Kaplan, Bankman-Fried’s legal professionals claimed the prosecution’s try to revoke his bail and have him detained are “extraordinarily skinny” and closely relied on assumptions and innuendo.
They added Bankman-Fried’s contact with a New York Occasions reporter was not an try to intimidate former Alameda Analysis CEO Caroline Ellison or taint the jury pool and it was not sufficient to justify his detainment forward of the trial.
Bankman-Fried’s contact with reporters was a “correct train of his rights to make honest touch upon an article already in progress, for which the reporter already had alternate sources,” the legal professionals argued.
On July 28, the USA Division of Justice (DOJ) sought to revoke Bankman-Fried’s bail alleging he shared Ellison’s diary with The New York Occasions in an try to harass and intimidate her.
Bankman-Fried’s legal professionals urged it was the federal government that shared Ellison’s diary with The New York Occasions, saying it was implausible the federal government had nothing to do with the article.
“The language of the story itself, which discusses when the Authorities will start making ready its trial witnesses and describes paperwork that weren’t supplied to the reporter by Mr. Bankman-Fried, strongly signifies it was a supply,” the legal professionals mentioned.
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They claimed the article — the place Ellison’s diary entries described feeling overwhelmed by her job, her insecurities and her heartbreak from her cut up with Bankman-Fried — forged her in a sympathetic mild.
Ellison has pleaded responsible to fraud expenses and is reportedly cooperating with the DOJ. She is anticipated to testify as a witness in opposition to Bankman-Fried in his felony trial scheduled for October.
Choose Kaplan, in the meantime, imposed a gag order on each Bankman-Fried and prosecutors till he considers the request to revoke Bankman-Fried’s bail.
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