Rejecting a deal to let Sam Bankman-Fried use encrypted messaging, a judge orders SBF's lawyers to form a plan to tighten his bail to ensure messages are saved
New York Times
Context & Ripple Effects
This ruling lands mid-arc in an escalating bail fight. Weeks earlier, a judge had already [[a:834857|banned Signal and other apps and cut off contact with current or former FTX and Alameda employees]], after SBF's team sought to keep bond signers' names redacted amid media scrutiny. Prosecutors and the judge were clearly unsatisfied with self-policing, and the proposed encrypted-messaging arrangement was the defense's attempt to restore some communication channel.
First-order effects
SBF loses any path back to encrypted messaging under his current bail, and his own lawyers are now tasked by the judge with drafting the tightening plan that ensures his messages are preserved and reviewable.
Second-order effects
The defense's negotiating position weakens: rather than bargaining for restored privileges, it must propose its own surveillance regime — the structure that shows up weeks later when [[a:838455|lawyers and prosecutors agree on new bail terms including a phone without internet and a stripped-down monitored laptop]].
Third-order effects
Preservation requirements turn pretrial release into a monitored-communications condition rather than a trust-based one — a standard that proved fragile anyway, since the DOJ's witness-tampering accusations over Caroline Ellison's diary led a judge to revoke SBF's bail outright months later.
The trend: High-profile federal defendants face a shift from negotiated bail privileges toward fully monitored, revocable communications regimes set by prosecutors and enforced by courts.
OK- FTX Sam Bankman-Fried bail hearing about to begin. #SBF is in the courtroom, head down at counsel table, whispering. He's appealed Press win to try to keep his co-signers secret. Inner City Press is on it https://www.patreon.com/... & will live tweet, thread below https://twi…
A judge extended Sam Bankman-Fried's restrictive bail terms this AM, noting Mary, Queen of Scots proved in the 16th century that you don't need an app to encrypt communications—and “there is still snail mail.” This might be my all-time favorite splitter. https://www.nydailynews.c…
“I read all the spy novels.” A federal judge is suspicious about a plan to ensure Sam Bankman-Fried cannot send encrypted messages while he awaits trial, reports @MattGoldstein26 and @yaffebellany. https://www.nytimes.com/...
The judge is extending a February 1 order barring Sam Bankman-Fried from using encrypted messaging apps like Signal until February 21. Here he is leaving the Federal Courthouse in New York moments ago. https://twitter.com/...
Judge presiding over @SBF_FTX criminal trial is giving defense and prosecutors time to “chew it over a little bit” the terms of how and if Bankman-Fried can use certain self-deleting messaging apps.
some background on SBF's texts to a possible witness - lawyers say he could get in trouble for witness tampering or obstruction of justice if he keeps it up, or at least damage his standing with the judge before the trial https://www.theblock.co/... https://twitter.com/...
Kaplan asks what the government means when barring SBF from using “any encrypted or ephemeral call or messaging application, including but not limited to Signal.” “I've read all the spy novels,” Kaplan jokes. It contains an exemption for WhatsApp, with monitoring software.
Now in the docket: “as to Samuel Bankman-Fried, the Court extends the Feb 1 Order until 11 :59 pm Feb 21. The parties shall file their submission(s) on defendant's conditions of release on or before Feb 13, 2023. (Signed by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan on 2/9/2023) https://twitter.com/.…
Good morning from New York. Sam Bankman-Fried is back in court for the first time since prosecutors found his encrypted message to FTX's general counsel. I'll be covering the proceedings for @LawCrimeNews. Background: https://lawandcrime.com/...
SBF belongs in the slammer. And if he and his family weren't well connected with influential politicians and lots of rich people, he would be. $350 million no-money-down bail? Secured by a house on land owned by Stanford University? Right. https://cnn.com/...