{"id":75802,"date":"2026-03-11T07:01:35","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T07:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=75802"},"modified":"2026-03-11T07:01:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T07:01:35","slug":"crypto-court-fight-not-over-as-prosecutors-seek-retrial-for-roman-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=75802","title":{"rendered":"Crypto Court Fight Not Over As Prosecutors Seek Retrial For Roman Storm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The US Treasury told Congress this month that crypto mixers have legitimate uses \u2014 including protecting consumer privacy.<\/p>\n

Days later, federal prosecutors in Manhattan moved to put the man who built one of the most-used mixers back on trial.<\/a><\/p>\n

A Split Jury, A Second Chance<\/h2>\n

Manhattan US Attorney Jay Clayton filed a letter<\/a> Monday asking federal Judge Katherine Polk Failla to schedule a retrial for Roman Storm, co-founder of Tornado Cash<\/a>, on two counts where jurors deadlocked last year.<\/p>\n

Clayton\u2019s office is pushing for trial dates between October 5 and 12, with proceedings expected to run three weeks.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said they were ready to go as early as spring, but Storm\u2019s defense team indicated they wouldn\u2019t be available until late 2026.<\/p>\n

\n

DOJ has decided it will retry Roman Storm in the fall. Despite failing to convince a jury the first time around, despite making obvious mistakes like calling irrelevant witnesses and not understanding the forensic analysis of their own blockchain evidence, and despite multiple\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/MRZDHAugT8<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Amanda Tuminelli (@amandatums) March 10, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Last August, a jury convicted<\/a> Storm on one count \u2014 conspiring to run an unlicensed money transmitting business \u2014 but could not reach a unanimous decision on the other two: conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate sanctions.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A hung jury does not count as an acquittal, which leaves prosecutors free to try again. Storm has since asked Judge Polk Failla to throw out even the conviction, arguing the government never proved he meant to help bad actors launder money through the platform.<\/p>\n

Crypto Crime: 40 Years On The Line<\/h2>\n

The stakes are severe. Storm posted on X that a conviction on both retried counts could send him to federal prison for up to 40 years.<\/p>\n

He described his alleged offense bluntly: writing open-source code for a protocol he does not control, involving transactions he never personally handled.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\ud83d\udea8\"NEW: The DOJ has asked to retry @TornadoCash<\/a> co-founder @rstormsf<\/a> on the two counts the jury hung on in the first trial: money laundering and sanctions violations.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors proposed an early October retrial date, even as Storm\u2019s Rule 29 motion to overturn his conviction on\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/0zX4hemook<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) March 10, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n\u201cA jury already couldn\u2019t agree this was criminal,\u201d Storm wrote. \u201cBut the SDNY prosecutors want to keep trying with the hope of getting a different answer.\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Amanda Tuminelli, legal chief at crypto advocacy group the DeFi Education Fund, called the retrial<\/a> decision \u201cincredibly disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n

She pointed to what she described as prosecutorial missteps during the first trial \u2014 irrelevant witnesses, a weak grasp of the blockchain forensics at the center of the case, and what she called flawed legal reasoning around third-party developer liability.<\/p>\n

The Memo That Didn\u2019t Hold<\/p>\n

Storm also raised a pointed contradiction. In April, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a memo stating the Justice Department \u201cis not a digital assets regulator\u201d and would stop pursuing cases that effectively impose regulatory frameworks on crypto.<\/p>\n

Storm noted that the same DOJ is now seeking his retrial anyway.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cSame country, same DOJ,\u201d he wrote. \u201cJust filed to retry me anyway.\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Reports<\/a> indicate Clayton\u2019s letter was filed the same week the Treasury Department\u2019s congressional report acknowledged that some people use crypto mixers for entirely lawful purposes, including keeping their spending habits private.<\/p>\n

Whether that acknowledgment will factor into Storm\u2019s defense remains to be seen. His acquittal motion is scheduled for argument in early April, and a ruling is expected before any retrial date is set.<\/p>\n

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The US Treasury told Congress this month that crypto mixers have legitimate uses \u2014 including protecting consumer privacy. Days later, federal prosecutors in Manhattan moved to put the man who built one of the most-used mixers back on trial. A Split Jury, A Second Chance Manhattan US Attorney Jay Clayton filed a letter Monday asking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-75802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75802\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}