As the trial date of Sam Bankman-Fried approaches, new concerns have been expressed by his legal defense team.
Last Friday, his attorneys submitted a motion in which they outlined the challenging conditions under which preparations for Sam Bankman-Fried’s defense are being made.
The motion
In the said motion, the lawyers have asked for a ‘temporary release’ for their client. If that is not possible, then the lawyers ask that a setup be created to allow Bankman-Fried to meet them at least five days a week.
According to the defense, essential online documents need to be accessible to their client and they insist that the former crypto mogul is the only one who has complete knowledge of the facts and companies involved.
The motion stated that there could not be a substitute for the contribution that Bankman-Fried had to make for his defense.
It further disclosed that before his bail revocation, the disgraced crypto founder had been spending at least 80 to 100 hours every week reviewing the discovery meticulously.
The lawyers also said that he had been providing detailed analyses to them to help prepare his defense.
The situation
Under the current directive of Judge Lewis Kaplan, Bankman-Fried can only use his laptop for six hours a day at the 500 Pearl Street courthouse, and that too twice a week.
Earlier this month, Bankman-Fried’s bond had been revoked by the judge over allegations of witness tampering on two separate occasions, which was considered a violation of his bail conditions.
The request submitted for leaving the prison to help the discovery process comes from a number of technical limitations.
The legal team of the former FTX CEO said that the prison cell had a frail internet connection, which was down for a major portion of two sessions.
They also cited the limited battery life of Bankman-Fried’s laptop and the absence of a power outlet in the cell as other problems.
They highlighted that their client had also been unable to assess his Google Docs, which is where his defense-related work had been stored.
The criticism
There was also criticism of the release of a considerable amount of new discoveries by the government in the late stages by Bankman-Fried’s defense team.
They said that reviewing it before the beginning of the trial was not feasible. They said in the motion that almost 4 million documents had been released by the government from the Google accounts of SBF.
The lawyers objected to the late release and said that even if SBF had been out on bail having unlimited time for review, it would still not be possible to do so before the trial.
The defense counsel said that SBF would use an internet-enabled computer for collaboration and document scrutiny under their supervision.
They also committed to taking responsibility for the security of the said laptop after the end of each session.
The judge has given a deadline of August 29th, Tuesday, for prosecutors to respond to the letter from the defense, along with another earlier letter that outlined the defense strategies.