Sam Bankman-Fried is waging a social media campaign for a pardon—but President Trump will not give him one, says the White House

Convicted crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried used to be a prolific donor to the Democratic Party, but these days his public statements have taken on a decidedly MAGA tone. “Clinton-appointed Judge Lewis Kaplan made his political bias very clear when sentencing me,” reads a recent screed on X. “I admire @realDonaldTrump for standing up to this ‘partisan and out of control activist’!”

This is just one of dozens of tweets railing about the deep state and other MAGA villains that Bankman-Fried, one of the century’s most notorious financial criminals, has published in recent weeks despite being locked up for 25 years in federal prison.

Though Bankman-Fried has not stated so explicitly, the goal of his social media spree is clear: Persuade President Donald Trump to spring him from federal prison. The strategy makes sense given that Trump has been dispensing pardons to several high-profile figures convicted of financial crimes, including Binance founder and one-time Bankman-Fried........

© Fortune