Defending the Indefensible? Sam Bankman-Fried’s Lawyers Deserve Better

Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial is well underway, and many are acting like the fight to convict the millennial Charles Ponzi is already won. It is true that the evidence presented so far appears damning, and that the overwhelming majority of criminal cases end in conviction. And there’s much to say about SBF’s attorney’s wet fart of a legal strategy, so far. But the old boy hasn’t yet been found guilty by a jury of his peers, and that matters.

So, I say, for the sake of humility and tact — let’s curb the bloodlust.

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Last week, during the first days of a trial that could extend six weeks, there was much rejoicing over the fact that SBF’s high-paid lawyers made an embarrassing initial showing. According to some estimates, District Judge Lewis Kaplan, a former prosecutor who is overseeing SBF’s case, rebutted 60% of attorney Christian Everdell’s questions during a cross-examination. At one point, former FTX dev (and longtime friend of SBF), Adam Yedidia, came right out and said he was ride or die for his former boss up until it became obvious SBF had “defrauded” his customers, a point that was stricken from the record but is impossible to forget.

See also: Sam Bankman-Fried, Other FTX Execs Committed Fraud: Gary Wang

But, again, the show is not over. What happens in the courtroom matters for this trial, and also the legal harranging that will almost certainly follow. If it’s true that trials are a type of theater (afterall, both lawyers and actors are paid liars), then special attention should be given to the performance of everyone in the courtroom. The actions and motions and statements offered today as well as the trial’s overall direction will become the “facts and circumstances” considered in an appeal.

While many onlookers in the crowded overflow rooms at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse in New York are likely thankful for Judge Kaplan’s ability to move the case forward (to say nothing of the schadenfreude many might feel seeing team SBF squirm), there’s a case to be made Kaplan should be a little more sporting, a little more…