Attorneys for Sam Bankman-Fried have filed a motion to secure his temporary release or at least have him meet with his defense team five days a week, citing his right to help prepare his defense. In a Friday letter, defense attorney Christian Everdell argued that Bankman-Fried’s right to work on his own defense is being infringed by his being in jail, as the documents he needs to review are only accessible online.
We do not believe that anything short of temporary release will properly address these problems and safeguard Mr. Bankman-Fried’s right to participate in his own defense, Everdell said. At the very least, however, we respectfully request that the Court reconsider its previous decision and order the Marshals to produce Mr. Bankman-Fried to the proffer rooms at 500 Pearl Street five days a week, where defense counsel can provide him with an internet-enabled computer that will permit him to review, edit, and share documents and work product with his attorneys.
The defense team also noted that Bankman-Fried needs a laptop to access the internet in order to review the millions of documents produced during discovery and add to a spreadsheet organizing key items. They added that Bankman-Fried has access to a laptop while he’s at the federal courthouse in Manhattan, but is limited to six hours a day, two days a week, substantially less than the 80-100 hours a week he was putting in prior to being sent to jail.
The defense team also took issue with the Department of Justice’s ongoing discovery productions, saying prosecutors shared more than 4 million new pages of documents last week. They want the judge to order that any discovery produced after July 1 be blocked, saying there isn’t enough time to review them all prior to trial.
The judge ordered prosecutors to respond to the letter by Tuesday, August 29, and scheduled a virtual hearing on Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. ET on the discovery issues. Bankman-Fried’s trial on seven different charges, including wire fraud and conspiracy to commit securities and commodities fraud, is currently scheduled to begin in early October.