Overview
- Sam Bankman-Fried withdrew his Rule 33 motion for a new trial without prejudice, leaving open the option to file it again later.
- He told the court he drafted the pro se filing himself while in custody and said his parents offered editorial help, responding to a judge’s inquiry after prosecutors questioned who wrote it.
- He wrote that he does not expect a fair hearing from Judge Lewis Kaplan and continues to seek reassignment to a different judge for any future new-trial request.
- His direct appeal of the conviction and 25-year sentence remains active in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on a separate track.
- Rule 33 allows a federal defendant to ask for a new trial, a step SBF is pausing as he continues to challenge his 2023 fraud convictions tied to what prosecutors say was roughly $8 billion in stolen FTX customer funds.