Karine Jean-Pierre Pressed On Why Sam Bankman-Fried Visited The White House Four Times | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the The Daily Wire. The author of this post is Ben Zeisloft.

    Reporters asked White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday about the several meetings top Biden administration officials held with former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who faces several fraud and money laundering charges.

    Bankman-Fried garnered controversy after users learned that he commingled funds between cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX and sister trading firm Alameda Research, losing untold billions' worth of assets as customers rushed to withdraw their balances. The disgraced entrepreneur's extensive political connections came to light in the weeks after his company's bankruptcy, including the $39 million he donated to Democrats ahead of the midterms and four meetings he was granted at the White House with top officials Steve Richetti and Bruce Reed.

    Jean-Pierre was questioned by a reporter about the meetings and asked to provide "any sort of summary of what has been discussed" during a Tuesday press briefing. She responded that officials discussed "pandemic prevention" and "general information on the cryptocurrency industry" with the former executive, adding that the administration has supported new regulations on digital assets.

    "The White House regularly engages with officials from a range of industries and sectors, including leaders in business and labor and nonprofits," Jean-Pierre remarked.

    Beyond emerging as one of the top overall political contributors during the midterm elections, Bankman-Fried was the second-largest donor to the campaign which successfully placed President Joe Biden in the White House. Reporters questioned Jean-Pierre last month on whether the administration believes Democratic organizations should return the funds donated by Bankman-Fried; she declined to answer the question by invoking the Hatch Act, which limits most federal employees from certain political and campaign activities.

    "That is still the case," Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday when pressed on the matter. "I don't have anything to share or any change of my comments that I've made before on this."

    Gabriel Bankman-Fried, the younger brother of Bankman-Fried and the head of the organization Guarding Against Pandemics, also participated in one of the meetings and received a rendezvous of his own. Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, the brothers' parents, are well-connected within Democratic circles.

    The Senate Majority PAC, which exists to elect Democrats to the upper chamber of Congress, announced plans to return $3 million donated by Bankman-Fried and Nishad Singh, who served as head of engineering for FTX. The Democratic National Committee, as well as the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, issued similar commitments as bankruptcy lawyers seek to claw back funds on behalf of customers and investors.

    Among the beneficiaries of Bankman-Fried's donations were House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA).

    Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to eight charges, which include conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and conspiracy to defraud the Federal Election Commission through campaign finance violations. Mark Cohen, a lawyer for Bankman-Fried who formerly defended Jeffrey Epstein confidant Ghislaine Maxwell, successfully requested that U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan permit the sealing of the names and addresses of two individuals who secured Bankman-Fried's $250 million bond due to attention drawn to the case, which has dominated headlines for more than two months.

poll#169

Considering how abjectly corrupt and civilly abusive the Left has become regarding the corrosive effect of their elected leaders; their entrenched and ruling bureaucracy; employing their failed Education Industry as Indoctrinators; their collusive private sector operators, such as the terminally discredited Legacy Media and Big Tech censorship of Free Speech: What will be the best course forward for hardworking Middle Americans, including the Patriot Class?

  Withdraw from society, go underground and plan for a resurgence when it is feasible to do so.

  Work within the confines of better policy by the People's government, once good sense and sanity is restored in the electorate at large, to achieve such.

  Are you a crazy, nut-job Insurrectionist? Everything is perfect within our plan to achieve our intended goals for the Socialist Left.

  Secession to form a true Constitutional Republic.

437 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?

poll#170

Considering what has happened to our Representative Republic since the corruptive orthodoxy that led to the tolerated abomination - The Russia Hoax - where felonies were perpetrated upon the American People by the creation of the Two Tiered Justice System, in the misnomer of "Social Justice:" Where do you stand on sustaining our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms in a society where injustice is chronically sanctioned by one political orthodoxy?

  I believe in a perfected society by employing a higher governmental authority to train the behavior of the public.

  The United States Constitution does not allow just a few freedoms, it guarantees ALL freedoms promised to Humankind by God.

  Just don't take away my Social Media.

420 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?

poll#145

After one full year of the Biden /Harris Administration: Does Joe Biden have the intellectual capacity, and, or the energy to lead the United States of America through the mess that he predominately created ... in just one year?

  Yes

  No

  Unsure

1,220 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?