An article about how most of the people in his industry want to see him convicted is propping him up?
Precisely. "Oh poor guy, he's not so bad with the bs altruism, it's just all the evil cryptos who want him to take the fall"
You wouldn't be surprised if RT went on the defence for a disgraced Russian. Don't be so surprised that the NYT, too, does so for one of their own.
It's weird because I thought if SBF "belonged" to anyone it was the Effective Altruism and (Internet) rationalist communities that he funded. Those are the folks who seemed most tightly linked to him before the crash, anyway.