Bankman Fried expresses concerns over DOJ’s bail revocation request, citing potential implications for free speech.

Attorneys for Bankman Fried said that the Department of Justice’s(DOJ) move to revoke his bond after he gave the public access to Caroline Ellison’s private journals was based on “thin” factual evidence.

Detaining Bankman-Friend, according to his attorneys, would cause “serious First Amendment concerns.”

Sam Bankman Fried’s solicitors claimed on Tuesday that the prosecution’s motion to withdraw his bail was based on a “thin” factual foundation and that doing so would violate his right to free speech.

In a document submitted to a federal judge, Bankman Fried’s attorneys said that the Department of Justice was “wrong” and that “its version of events mischaracterizes the facts and removes them from their proper context to cast Mr. Bankman-Fried’s actions and intentions in the most negative light possible.”

Following Bankman-Fried’s scandalous sharing of Caroline Ellison’s private journals with the New York Times, DoJ prosecutors submitted a written request to revoke her release. 

“What the defendant may not do, and what he has now done repeatedly, is seek to corruptly influence witnesses and interfere with a fair trial through attempted public harassment and shaming,” The DoJ stated in the petition that the defendant.

Bankman-Fried’s attorneys disagreed, arguing that his interactions with the NYT reporter were not intended to threaten Ellison or contaminate the jury pool. 

“It was a proper exercise of his rights to make fair comment on an article already in progress, for which the reporter already had alternate sources,” his attorneys said.

“As the Government concedes, criminal defendants have a right to talk to the press about their case to influence their public image and try to protect their reputation, as long as the communications are not calculated to pervert the course of justice,” the filing said.

Bankman Fried Freedom Of Speech Issue

The defense team for Bankman-Fried claimed that holding him in custody because of his conversations with a reporter “raises serious First Amendment concerns.”

The Metropolitan Detention Centre is experiencing a “staffing crisis,” according to Bankman-Fried’s legal representatives, which would “make it impossible for him to fully participate in his defence” if he were detained there.

According to the attorneys, he would be completely blocked off from essential portions of the discovery because the prison forbids detainees from having internet access.