Will the White House Return SBF’s Donations?
- The White House has offered no real answers on how it plans to handle Bankman-Fried’s donations.
- Sam Bankman Fried made heavy donations to President Biden’s campaign in 2020.
- The bulk of SBF’s donations went to Democrats.
Sam Bankman-Fried built a reputation as one of the biggest donors in modern American politics, with the White House also receiving a fair share of his supposed benevolence. However, the 30-year-old’s empire has not only crumbled but also his public image as a community-supporting genius.
Bankman-Fried was arrested by officials in the Bahamas following the request of the US government. However, the White House has stayed silent on whether it would return SBF’s 2020 donations to President Joe Biden’s campaign.
An Associated Press reporter, Zeke Miller, asked the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, during a press briefing if the government would return the money donated to his last campaign. However, Miller got no tangible response from the press secretary.
Miller also asked if the President calls on all “politicians who got campaign donations that may have come from customer money to return those funds?” Refusing to give any response, the press secretary said she was “covered here by the Hatch Act.” The Hatch Act is a federal law that forbids anyone working for the executive arm of government from getting involved in political campaigning.
Jean-Pierre added that she was “limited on what I can say, and anything that’s connected to political contributions from here I would refer you to the DNC on that.” When questioned about the president’s views on Bankman-Fried’s political contributions, Jean-Pierre declined to comment, saying “even [the president’s] thoughts about the contributions, donations. I cannot speak about that from here.”
According to visitor logs, Biden’s top adviser, Steve Ricchetti, hosted Bankman-Fried to at least two West Wing meetings this year. It’s unknown who else he might have run into on the visits on April 22 and May 11.
According to Federal Election Commission records, Bankman-Fried donated $50,000 to the Biden Victory Fund in October 2020 and $2,800 to the Biden campaign in the same month.
It appears that the White House has attempted to distance itself from Bankman-Fried since his fall from glory and subsequent disgrace. The White House has redirected questions about how the president plans to handle the donations to the Democratic National Committee. SBF is said to have indirectly supported Biden’s campaign in the 2020 election with $10 million.
Several Congress members, such as Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Dick Durbin, Reps. Dutch Ruppersberger, Salud Carbajal, Jesus Garcia, and Kevin Hern, have already confirmed that they will funnel donations made by Bankman-Fried and his younger brother, Gabriel, to charity.
Prior to the midterm elections last month, Bankman-Fried donated at least $39.2 million to Democrats in Congress, coming in second only to liberal billionaire George Soros. Bankman-Fried made generous donations to Republicans, but a huge portion of his gifts went to Democrats.
Lawrence has covered some exciting stories in his career as a journalist, he finds blockchain-related stories very intriguing. He believes Web3 will change the world and wants everyone to be a part of it.
