Sam Bankman-Fried has withdrawn his motion for a new trial in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, while keeping the right to raise it again later. The filing was made under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 33 and withdrawn without prejudice. In his written statement, SBF said plainly that he does not believe he would receive a fair hearing on the matter before Judge Lewis Kaplan.
Withdrawal leaves recusal request and direct appeal in place
The move does not end his legal challenge. According to the source material, SBF is still pursuing two separate avenues: a motion seeking to replace Kaplan, first filed in February and still unresolved, and a direct appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The recusal filing used sharp language, accusing Kaplan of “extreme prejudice”. A direct appeal would move the case outside the district judge’s control and into the federal appellate system.
Court scrutiny followed questions about who helped draft filings
The dispute grew out of a procedural fight in March. SBF had submitted a delay motion on a pro se basis, meaning he was acting on his own behalf. A few days later, his mother, Barbara Fried, sent a letter to the court even though she was not a party to the case. Prosecutors then raised a question: whether SBF had actually received behind-the-scenes help from lawyers while filing those pro se papers.
Judge Kaplan sent SBF a letter dated March 23, asking for a direct answer on that point. In his latest response, SBF said the letter was written by him, though he had discussed it with his parents. He then used the same filing to withdraw the new trial motion, explaining that he no longer trusted Kaplan to fairly hear the issue.
Original new trial claim targeted DOJ conduct toward witnesses
The withdrawn motion had centered on a serious allegation. SBF claimed that the Department of Justice under the Biden administration had threatened multiple witnesses to stay silent or change their testimony, affecting his ability to mount a fair defense during his 2023 trial. The source says that allegation was never formally tested in court, and the withdrawal means it will not be examined through that motion for now.
Current sentence stands as focus shifts to removing the judge
SBF is serving his sentence at the Lompoc I federal correctional institution in California. A jury convicted him in 2023 on seven criminal counts, and Kaplan later sentenced him to 25 years in prison. At this stage, his legal strategy has narrowed around one central objective: trying to get Kaplan off the case. Whether the Second Circuit is willing to take up a direct appeal now remains the main procedural question.