Sam Bankman-Fried, the imprisoned cofounder of now defunct crypto exchange FTX, spoke with far-right talk show host Tucker Carlson on his podcast about what it’s like to be behind bars with rapper and alleged sex trafficker Sean “Diddy” Combs.
“I’ve only seen one piece of him, which is Diddy in prison,” Bankman-Fried said on The Tucker Carlson Show on Thursday from a federal prison in Brooklyn. “He’s been kind to people in the unit. He’s been kind to me. It’s a position no one wants to be in… It’s a soul-crushing place.”
Bankman-Fried and Combs have been living in the same part of the Metropolitan Detention Center designed for detainees who require special protection since September when Combs was arrested on multiple charges related to sex trafficking and prostitution. Combs has since pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial that is set to begin in May.
Bankman-Fried has resurfaced in recent weeks to voice his support for the Trump administration and disappointment in the Democratic Party. His media appearances seem to be a part of an effort to cozy up to President Donald Trump in an attempt to receive a pardon after being sentenced to 25 years for fraud and conspiracy following FTX’s collapse.
Bankman-Fried donated millions of dollars to Democrats before FTX collapsed in 2022 and made dozens of trips to D.C. to meet with legislators. “I was really, really shocked by what I saw, and not in a good way,” he told Carlson. “By late 2022, I was giving to Republicans privately as much as I was giving to Democrats.”
In recent weeks, Bankman-Fried has specifically expressed his support of Elon Musk, the tech billionaire behind mass firings of government employees and one of Trump’s closest confidantes. For example, Bankman-Friend told conservative news outlet the New York Sun that “some things actually do need more than a 10% cut.”
Bankman-Fried also recently posted on X for the first time in two years to praise Musk, saying that firing employees at FTX was one of the hardest things “in the world” but that “it is usually correct to let them go anyway.”
His public comments seem to be part of a more private effort by Bankman-Fried’s parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, to get their son out of jail. Bloomberg reported in January that his parents have been discussing the idea of a pardon “with lawyers and other figures considered to be in Trump’s orbit.”
Although there has been no confirmation from the Trump administration about a potential pardon for Bankman-Fried, the idea is not as far-fetched as it may seem. One of Trump’s first moves in office was to pardon Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the drug trafficking website Silk Road, which used Bitcoin and other crypto to launder money.
