Sam Bankman-Fried’s Lawyers Push Back Against DOJ’s Motion to Block Proposed Witnesses

The State of crypto is presented by Tron connecting the world to the power of Cryptocurrency. Sam Baman Free's defense attorneys are upset. Well, at least they're paid to be. They're saying that prosecutors are continuing to push to prevent the FTX founder from having a fair trial. Ok. Well, joining us now to discuss this horrible injustice allegedly is none other than coin dest global policy and regulation. Managing editor Nick Day who is also the editor of the one newsletter, you should mortgage your house to pay for, but it's free and that is Coin de state of crypto. Come next. Good morning. Ok. So Sam's attorneys all upset awfully. They're, they're, they're screaming Jeremiah, what's going on here. Yeah. So um late last month, the two parties, uh both the prosecution and the defense here filed what are so, you know, known as Dober Motions um where they basically said, you know, we believe the other side's, you know, witnesses or some of the other side's witnesses should not be allowed to testify because their testimony is going to be irrelevant. They don't have the experience, uh they are trying to, you know, interpret the law rather than explain the law. You know, number of reasons. The prosecution famously tried to push back against all of Sam be Mre's proposed witnesses, all seven proposed experts, third party experts who could uh in the defense's words, provide information on uh either the FTX platform and how it operates on the terms of service and how it does work, uh things like that. So last night, the defense filed a motion saying, uh you know, we put, we disagree with the Do J's characterization of our witnesses and their relevance to this trial. We believe all of them should be allowed to testify and they gave reasons saying that, you know, for example, some of them are going to be rebuttal witnesses for things that the doj plans to discuss during the trial. Uh Some are, you know, as we mentioned before, going to be more focused on explaining the FTX platform or the terms of service, things like that. And uh you know, now we're gonna have to wait and see how the judge looks at this and what he believes is an appropriate use of, you know, his time during the trial, basically incompetent and unable to explain crypto. That's all, you know, they shouldn't talk about the ftxs uh management like, oh wait, they're talking about witnesses. I, I, I'm sorry. Right. Nick. It, I ask you this all the time, but is this just normal back and forth? Is this just something that we should expect ahead of a big trial like this. Of course, we have the back and forth over the computer that we can't seem to get rid of. And now we have the back and forth over FT X witnesses. Every time he opens his computer, he sends something to the New York Times, to be honest. So, well, he doesn't really have a very good internet connection. So it might take him a while. Hey, everyone in prison, he's a really bad boyfriend. Apparently. Just say so as far as the back and forth goes like, yeah, that's, uh, the back and forth itself is pretty normal. Uh, the one thing that's kind of interesting to me is the defense's argument that this is part of the Do J's efforts to prevent Baman freed from having a fair trial. You know, it's the same argument they've used about the bail revocation and the laptop issue actually as you pointed out. So, um, you know, it, it's kind of, uh, you know, part of it is a rhetorical device, but I think also part of it is, I am willing to bet, uh, you know, I probably shouldn't say this but I'm willing to bet whatever, you know, my favorite Lego set, if be MRI is convicted, they're going to appeal and if they appeal, they're probably going to say, yeah, he didn't have a fair trial. Look at all this stuff that how he had to deal with. So I think a part of it is also them trying to just build up, you know, all of that as a, you know, defense potentially or as an argument potentially for, you know, if be MRI does get convicted at the end of what we're now expecting to be a six week trial beginning next month. Yeah, this this go on for a long time. Yeah, as always. Thank, thank you for joining. Thank you for giving us that recap and that insight. That was Coindesk global policy and regulation managing editor Nick Day and don't forget to sign up for the state of crypto newsletter on coindesk dot com.