Senate Unanimously Opposes Clemency for Sam Bankman-Fried
The Senate passed a nonbinding resolution declaring FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried should not receive a presidential pardon or commutation.
The Senate approved S. Res. 772 by unanimous consent on July 15, 2026, declaring that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried should not receive executive clemency, including a pardon or commutation. The resolution was introduced June 17 by Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Rubén Gallego (D-Ariz.), the leading members of the Senate Banking Committee’s digital assets subcommittee. As a sense-of-the-Senate resolution, it carries no legal force and cannot block a president from exercising the constitutional power to grant clemency.
Lummis described Bankman-Fried as having “had his day in court,” while Gallego urged, “Keep him locked up.” A spokesperson for Lummis’ office said the senator and her colleagues wanted to record their view that Bankman-Fried belongs in prison rather than receiving clemency.
A jury convicted Bankman-Fried in November 2023 on seven counts tied to the 2022 collapse of FTX. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison after prosecutors said customer losses exceeded $8 billion. Federal appeals courts recently rejected his challenge to the conviction. Based on the sentence, his scheduled release is currently set for around 2044.
Bankman-Fried has pursued potential executive relief. President Donald Trump said in January he had no plans to pardon him. The president has granted clemency to other figures in the cryptocurrency sector, including Binance founder Changpeng Zhao; BitMEX co-founders Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo and Samuel Reed; and Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the Silk Road marketplace.
Senators who sponsored the resolution said putting the Senate’s position on the record was appropriate given the case’s high profile and its effects on confidence in financial markets. The measure cleared the floor without a roll-call vote after no senator objected to unanimous consent. The resolution records bipartisan congressional opposition to clemency but does not change Bankman-Fried’s legal status or the president’s authority to grant a pardon or commutation.
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