The US Senate agreed on Wednesday that Sam Bankman-Fried should receive no clemency under any circumstances, putting the chamber on record against a pardon for the FTX founder without a single senator objecting.
Senate Resolution 772, introduced on 17 Jun by Senators Cynthia Lummis, a Wyoming Republican, and Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat, was agreed to by unanimous consent on 15 Jul. This means that US Senate leadership sought to move the measure without a formal vote, and no senator that was present at the time objected.
Nonetheless, it carries no legal force.
The presidential pardon power is guaranteed in Article II of the US Constitution. Congress cannot limit it without formally amending the Constitution. As a result, the resolution is a formal statement for the record of the Senate's opinion.
A line, and where it falls
That view is worth reading against the current record of pardons under the current administration. President Donald Trump has pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht and BitMEX co-founders Arthur Hayes and Ben Delo. Not one senator objected to a resolution declaring Bankman-Fried different, and where that line falls says more about crypto's standing in Washington than the text does.
Bankman-Fried was convicted in November 2023 on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy and sentenced to 25 years in federal prison. FTX customers lost more than $8bn.
Senator Gallego, who is the Ranking Member of the Senate Banking Committee's Subcommittee on Digital Assets, said in June that Bankman-Fried "took advantage of millions of Americans and stole their savings."
Senator Lummis, often dubbed the "Bitcoin Senator" in Washington for her strong support of the digital assets industry, is the chairwoman of the subcommittee.
Unanimity was cheap
Trump told The New York Times in January he had no plans to pardon Bankman-Fried, and prediction markets put the odds in single digits.
The resolution rejects any characterization of the prosecution as lawfare, the argument Bankman-Fried has pressed from prison, and affirms the integrity of a process that produced a conviction by a unanimous jury and a sentence by an independent federal judge. He lost his appeal in June, leaving the White House as his last route to freedom.
