Bankman-Fried explored legality of paying Trump not to run for reelection: book

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who is set to go on trial this week over fraud and money laundering charges, explored the legality of paying former President Trump not to run for reelection, according to a new book.

An excerpt from Michael Lewis’s “Going Infinite: the Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon” was published in The Washington Post on Monday and details Bankman-Fried’s last year in the crypto industry. It includes insights into how he allegedly looked into paying Trump and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to stop the former president and his supporters from running for election. 

The excerpt describes a conversation between Lewis and Bankman-Fried as he was on his way to 2022 dinner between McConnell and the FTX founder, who was planning to give $15 million to $30 million to the longtime GOP leader “to defeat the Trumpier candidates in the Senate races.”

“[I]n McConnell, Sam had found someone as interested as he was in another existential threat to humanity: Donald Trump,” the excerpt reads. “Trump’s assault on the government, and on the integrity of U.S. elections, belonged, to Sam’s way of thinking, on the same list as pandemics and artificial intelligence and climate change.”

The conversation took place on a plane headed to Washington, D.C., where Bankman-Fried was scheduled to meet with McConnell. He also revealed to Lewis he was considering paying Trump to not run for reelection and suggested the price for doing so was $5 billion.

“His team had somehow created a back channel into the Trump operation and returned with the not terribly Earth-shattering news that Donald Trump might indeed have his price: $5 billion. Or so Sam was told by his team,” the excerpt states. 

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung dismissed the allegations in a statement to The Hill on Monday.

“Isn’t Sam Bankman-Fried a liar who has been outed as a fraudster and someone that can’t be trusted? Sounds like Sam Bankman-Fried is back to his conning ways and trying to deceive people,” Cheung said.

The book noted Bankman-Fried was President Biden’s second or third biggest donor, donating $5.2 million to his presidential campaign in 2020.

Bankman-Fried is now slated to face trial this week as prosecutors will argue he stole billions of dollars in FTX customer deposits and allegedly used the money to boost his hedge fund, invest in real estate and make illegal campaign donations. 

The Hill has reached out to McConnell’s campaign for comment.

—Updated at 3:14 p.m.