Following Donald Trump’s first presidential election victory in 2016, “a relatively obscure” Stanford law professor named Barbara Fried was devastated, according to a report.
But she vowed to take action against the polarizing new president, and her “midlife political awakening” led her to organize her wealthy Democratic friends and contacts into a “secretive” group that briefly reshaped big-money politics in Silicon Valley and vowed to funnel more than $140 million into defeating Trump and other Republicans in 2020, Puck and Vox reported.
Five years later, Fried and her fellow Stanford law professor husband, Joseph Bankman, have had a decisive change of heart about Trump, according to a report by Bloomberg News. And it looks like the plight of their 32-year-old son, disgraced former cryptocurrency billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, has everything to do with that.
So, too, does Trump’s return to the White House on Jan. 20. The parents of the FTX co-founder have met with lawyers and others close to Trump seeking clemency for their son, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence for fraud, the Daily Beast reported, citing Bloomberg. The beleaguered Fried and Bankman, who were “heartbroken” by their son’s prosecution and sentencing, are “exploring” the possibilities of a Trump pardon, Bloomberg also said.
Bankman-Fried was last reported to be incarcerated in the notorious Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, as he pursues an appeal.
Bankman-Fried’s hopes of a possible pardon have been buoyed by Trump’s support of cryptocurrencies — and by the fact that the judge in his federal trial, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, also presided over the the sexual assault and defamation lawsuits brought against Trump by writer E. Jean Carroll, the Daily Beast noted.
The Daily Beast said it was unclear if Fried and Bankman’s plea for their son had yet reached the White House.
Bankman-Fried and his parents also have reportedly been heartened by the fact that Trump quickly pardoned Ross Ulrich, another convicted white-collar cybercriminal, according to the Daily Beast said.
Ulbricht was the founder of the now-defunct dark web marketplace Silk Road, where users could use the digital currency bitcoin to buy and sell illegal drugs such as heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine, the Washington Post reported. At least six people died after overdosing on drugs purchased on Ulbricht’s marketplace, the Washington Post also said.
Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison in 2015 after being convicted of conspiracy and money laundering. But Trump made a campaign promise to libertarian voters to pardon the entrepreneur, the Washington Post said. Ulbricht also is considered a pioneer in the use of cryptocurrency. After Trump issued the pardon, he said on Truth Social that doing so was his “pleasure” and called Ulbricht’s life sentence “ridiculous.”
Bankman-Fried has similarly claimed that his 25-year sentence, imposed in March 2024, was the result of a “false narrative” created by prosecutors, who said that the collapse of his exchange exposed a $10 billion fraud, according to an appeals court document filed in September, ABC News reported. Among other things, Bankman-Fried has insisted he was the victim of a market downturn, and his attorneys have said his sentence is “draconian” because FTX clients got back most of the money they lost.
Like his parents, Bankman-Fried didn’t donate to Trump’s 2020 campaign but was a major Democratic donor, the Daily Beast said. But now, he and his parents see Trump as a potential ally, even hoping that the president’s advisors will consider the disgraced mogul’s case a political prosecution.
It wouldn’t be surprising to learn that Bankman and Fried also share Trump’s antipathy for Judge Kaplan. During their son’s sentencing in March, Fried claimed that her first-born son “lived an exemplary life in every way prior to the events that brought FTX down, not merely avoiding doing bad things, but dedicating his life to doing good.”
But Kaplan issued a stinging rebuke of Bankman-Friend. Kaplan agreed that the professors’ son was “extremely smart,” “talented” and possibly a “high-achieving autistic person.” Kaplan also noted the privileged background that Bankman and Fried provided for him, raising him in a loving home on the Stanford University campus with “every advantage they could confer on him.”
But to Kaplan, the idiosyncratic, one-time billionaire also is a “criminal” who did things at FTX he knew were “wrong,” including allowing his trading firm Alameda to illegally use FTX customers’ money to invest in real estate and to donate to preferred political causes and charities.
“Mr. Bankman-Fried knew that Alameda was spending customer funds on risky investments, political contributions and Bahamas real estate,” Kaplan said. “The funds were not his to use.”
Kaplan disputed the contention of Bankman and Fried parents that their son was motivated by altruism. The judge said he wanted power and influence, not only in the burgeoning cryptocurrency industry, but also in politics. He “wanted to be a hugely, hugely politically influential person in this country,” Kaplan said, agreeing with prosecutors that these ambitions propelled his financial crimes.
Following Bankman-Fried’s sentencing, the Stanford academics issued a statement, saying they were “heartbroken” but would continue “to fight for our son.”