Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyers have objected to an additional 3.7 million pages of discovery documents the U.S. government sent them in an Aug. 28 letter to Judge Lewis Kaplan.
Per the letter, the prosecution initially dumped 4 million pages of documents on SBF on Aug. 24 before releasing this additional 3.7 million pages. This brings the records available for the defense to 7.7 million pages.
Legal representatives for SBF have characterized this latest document release as a breach of the agreed-upon discovery timeline. They formally requested the court to intervene and prevent any more substantial document releases, especially given the imminent trial.
The lawyers lamented that the document dump represents another “example of the Government violating the discovery schedule it promised the Court it would follow.”
Furthermore, the letter also emphasized the need for the court to bar the prosecution from introducing evidence from these two document productions during the trial proceedings.
Meanwhile, SBF’s defense team pointed out a significant hindrance in the case – their client’s inability to review the evidence due to his detention at the Metropolitan Detention Center. Besides that, the disgraced FTX co-founder has yet to access the hard drive sent to the detention facility.
In an earlier court application, SBF’s legal team requested that he spend weekdays at the court facility with his lawyers to contribute to his defense actively. They stressed the irreplaceable nature of his involvement in the case.
Despite the request being made on Aug.18, the court has not yet granted this crucial arrangement, forcing the lawyers to continue emphasizing the necessity of SBF’s active participation in his defense.
SBF has maintained his not-guilty plea with the trial looming just six weeks away. The FTX co-founder intends to argue that his actions were in good faith and based on legal advice.
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