DOJ Dismisses Tornado Cash Developer’s Legal Argument
- The Department of Justice (DOJ) rejected Roman Storm’s plea to dismiss his criminal case, citing irrelevance of a recent Supreme Court ruling.
- Storm was charged in 2023 for running Tornado Cash, a service that allowed Ethereum users to hide transaction details.
- Prosecutors argued that Storm knew about illegal activities on Tornado Cash but did not act to prevent them.
- A Manhattan jury previously found Storm guilty of operating an illegal money transmitter but was undecided on other charges.
- The DOJ aims to retry Storm for conspiracy to commit money laundering and sanctions evasion.
The DOJ contends that the Supreme Court’s decision in a separate copyright case does not apply to Roman Storm’s situation, as it involves different legal circumstances and industry contexts. This case underscores ongoing tensions between the Trump administration’s pro-crypto stance and its actions against crypto developers.
Despite previous pledges by the DOJ under the Trump administration to cease prosecuting crypto privacy software developers, multiple developers have been imprisoned, raising concerns among privacy advocates about the consistency of this policy shift. (Source)
