Defense team charges some juror questions in FTX trial

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Defense team charges some juror questions in FTX trial

Some of the proposed juror questions could prejudice potential jurors into thinking Sam Bankman-Fried was guilty before the trial begins, the FTX founder's defense team charged in a late Friday filing.

s proposed voir dire discourages full Disclosure from potential jurors, fails to elicit sufficient information to allow the defense to ascertain potential juror bias, and risks tainting the jury by presenting the allegations in a prejudicial manner.

Both sides proposed voir dire questions on Sept. 11 to the judge. A few days later, lawyers for the DOJ objected to Bankman-Fried's proposed questions, saying some of them are 'unnecessarily intrusive' about the potential jurors' thoughts on FTX and its related companies, as well as the case.

As Friday's filing from the defense, the DOJ's opponents alleged that some of the proposed questions were designed to Prime potential jurors into believing certain defense arguments and otherwise bias them toward Bankman-Fried prior to trial.

Voir dire is set to start on Oct. 3. Investors in lower Manhattan asked coinDesk if they'd heard of FTX or Bankman-Fried earlier this month to gauge what a random selection of individuals might say.

In a separate filing on Friday, the defense team said it did not have any problems with the judge granting immunity to two unnamed witnesses. Judge Kaplan asked if the defense would ask that the witness first invoke their Fifth Amendment right to not potentially incriminate themselves first during a hearing on Thursday.