DoJ wants to bar SBF’s expert witnesses from testifying in court

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a motion on Aug. 28 to have all seven of the expert witnesses for Sam Bankman Fried banned from testifying in court. 

In the motion, the DOJ claims SBF’s proposed experts and their accompanying disclosures “suffer from an array of deficiencies” which it believes warrant being barred from the trial.

It continued to say that some of the disclosures “fail at the most basic level” to portray the opinions of the expert and most fail to provide a basis for the opinions, which is a requirement of the Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 16.

“Where the defendant does disclose the expert’s opinions, the opinions are inappropriate subjects for expert testimony, lack a reliable methodology or basis in facts and data, or are irrelevant, unfairly prejudicial, and confusing to the jury.”

Additionally, it argues that the legal conclusions from the proposed experts would invade the purview of both the court and jury. The DOJ asked the court to exercise its “gatekeeping authority” to prevent such expert testimonies.

At the moment, the seven proposed witnesses are Lawrence Akka, Thomas Bishop, Brian Kim, Joseph Pimbley, Bradley Smith, Peter Vinella and Andrew Di Wu, all professionals in the legal field. 

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.