Prosecutors are exaggerating the extent of access FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried actually has to defense materials, his lawyers said in a memo late Friday.
Bankman-Fried continues to lack adequate internet access when he was placed in a cellblock at the Southern District of New York courthouse, and he did not have nearly the air-gapped computer access that he would have, according to the Justice Department’s statement in a defense attorney Mark Cohen’s signed letter said.
Bankman-Fried’s defense team has sought to temporarily release him or give him greater computer access to work on his defense, arguing that his Sixth Amendment rights would be violated. Prosecutors claimed he had access to defense materials after his bail was revoked last month on public safety grounds.
Earlier this week, the DOJ submitted a letter saying Bankman-Fried now has access to multiple hard drives containing defense materials provided by the defense, an air-gapped laptop every day of the week and an internet-enabled laptop with a new one Battery provided by defense counsel.
Friday’s letter detailed these issues. Bankman-Fried was only able to load a single document due to poor internet speeds after it was presented to the courthouse on Wednesday and granted access to an internet-enabled computer.
“In fact, Mr. Bankman-Fried did not have access to the Internet during the entire five-hour period,” the letter said. “…Despite the government’s efforts, there appears to be no way to solve the internet access problem in the cell block. This means that Mr. Bankman-Fried has no ability to review and search documents in the Discovery database or the AWS database prior to trial. The defendant cannot prepare for the trial with such restrictions.”
Bankman-Fried also didn’t have the full time to use an air-gapped computer that prosecutors had promised, Cohen said.
“Almost a full month has passed since Mr. Bankman-Fried was remanded in custody, and we have lost that time to effectively prepare for trial,” the letter said. “We therefore respectfully reiterate our request that the court order the temporary release of Mr. Bankman-Fried.”