Conservative activist Laura Loomer has alleged in an X post that a“well funded” effort is in progress to get the founder of the collapsed FTX founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, out of prison. 

Members of the current administration and the general public were warned by activist Laura Loomer not to fall for the alleged incoming efforts to whitewash the founder of the defunct FTX exchange that led to the market crash and subsequent bear market of 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried.

SBF is pushing for a pardon

Conservative activist and commentator Laura Loomer has alleged the existence of a “highly mobilized and well funded” effort to secure a presidential pardon for the disgraced founder of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

In a post shared on the social media platform X on March 11, 2025, Loomer claimed that political operatives and consultants within “Trump world” were being persuaded to advocate for Bankman-Fried’s release and that the effort was financially motivated.

“There is a highly mobilized and well funded effort on the right to lobby Trump world to pardon crypto scammer @SBF_FTX Sam Bankman-Fried,” Loomer wrote. “His family members are actively working with a firm to get the Trump admin to have Trump pardon SBF.”

Loomer described the initiative as “deeply concerning,” and stressed that it was contradictory of conservative values to show support for a figure who was one of the Democratic Party’s largest financial backers before his downfall. 

Prior to his incarceration, Bankman-Fried was the second-largest donor to Democrats and contributed millions of dollars ahead of the 2022 U.S. midterm elections. Notably, the financier, George Soros, is the largest donor to Democrats.

Federal prosecutors later revealed that many of these political contributions were made using misappropriated customer funds. In 2024, Bankman-Fried was convicted of multiple counts of fraud and conspiracy and sentenced to 25 years in federal prison, along with three years of supervised release and $11B in forfeiture.

Laura Loomer doubles down on ‘Influence Campaign’ allegations 

In a more recent post on X, Loomer stated that the efforts to free SBF had intensified and that media narratives that are sympathetic to him are part of an organized influence campaign.

“You’re going to start seeing a lot more in the news about Sam Bankman-Fried,” Loomer wrote. “There is a massive and well-funded lobby effort to get this criminal pardoned. He’s going to pretend like he was a victim of Joe Biden and the Democrats after he funded all of the Left’s campaigns. Don’t fall for it.”

She further claimed that certain online influencers belonging to the conservative group had begun portraying Bankman-Fried as a “victim” following reports that he was placed in solitary confinement after giving an interview to Tucker Carlson. Loomer described this change in tone as part of a deliberate “social media influence campaign.”

There are no public records or official statements that confirm any of Loomer’s claims of an organized effort. The Trump campaign and Bankman-Fried’s legal representatives have also never commented on the allegations. Despite this, her allegations are a point of conversation within conservative circles.  

Loomer’s posts gained some traction on X, and users have both amplified her warnings and also questioned her sources. Some conservative commentators have echoed her concerns, arguing that granting clemency to Bankman-Fried would contradict the populist and anti-corruption rhetoric that is the foundation of Donald Trump’s politics.

The controversy also underscores how cryptocurrency continues to shape political dynamics across both democratic and conservative parties.

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