Sam Bankman-Fried said an appeals court just overturned a conviction because Judge Lewis Kaplan wrongfully blocked evidence—the same judge who sentenced SBF to 25 years and presided over Trump’s E. Jean Carroll case.
The Appeals Court Precedent
The Second Circuit threw out a conviction in a separate case, finding that Judge Kaplan wrongfully excluded evidence of intent.
The appeals court vacated several counts and remanded for further proceedings—a significant rebuke of Kaplan’s evidentiary decisions.
Bankman-Fried immediately connected the dots. “Kaplan repeatedly cut off my testimony and excluded every kind of evidence the government asked him to,” he posted on X.
His pending Second Circuit appeal argues the same exclusion of intent evidence violated his right to a fair trial.
The excluded evidence falls into several categories: lawyers approved the entities and bank accounts FTX used, lawyers drafted …