Just a theory, but I think that unless politicians feels he has future leverage, they're unlikely to be lenient (can't think of a more fairweather friend than a politician who you know because you gave them money) and actually may go harder on him because of this narrative which they feel they need to counter

FTX exec Ryan Salame donated $23 million to Republicans. FTX buttered both sides of their bread and people in the dark keep wanting to make this a political issue, when it is a fraud issue. Sam donated 27 million to the Protect Our Future organization that supports candidates who take a long term view on policy planning and $10 million to Democrats, is the numbers I've seen.

I think when considering SBF's political donations, conflating SBF and FTX and FTX.us and Alameda Research's donations is correct.