{"id":69295,"date":"2026-04-08T09:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T02:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/trump-doj-rejects-tornado-cash-developers-newest-argument-for-dismissal\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T09:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T02:10:12","slug":"trump-doj-rejects-tornado-cash-developers-newest-argument-for-dismissal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/zh\/trump-doj-rejects-tornado-cash-developers-newest-argument-for-dismissal\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump DOJ Rejects Tornado Cash Developer\u2019s Newest Argument for Dismissal"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<h4 color=\"#333\">In brief<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>The DOJ rejected Roman Storm\u2019s argument that a recent Supreme Court ruling should lead to his case&#8217;s dismissal.<\/li>\n<li>Prosecutors told a judge the ruling shouldn&#8217;t apply, arguing it deals with a different situation and industry.<\/li>\n<li>The case highlights tensions between the Trump administration\u2019s pro-crypto stance and its continued prosecution of crypto developers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>Attorneys for the Department of Justice poured cold water Tuesday on <a href=\"https:\/\/decrypt.co\/resources\/what-is-ethereum-quickly-explained-four-minute-guide\" target=\"_blank\">Ethereum<\/a> developer Roman Storm\u2019s latest plea for dismissal of his criminal case\u2014which could now head to court for a second time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In a letter sent today, federal prosecutors urged federal judge Katherine Polk Failla to disregard a recent Supreme Court ruling, which Storm\u2019s attorneys said could have significant implications for the software developer\u2019s current legal woes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Storm was arrested and charged in 2023 for operating Tornado Cash, a coin mixing service that allowed Ethereum users to keep their transactions, typically visible on the blockchain, private. Prosecutors alleged Storm was aware that bad actors were using Tornado Cash to launder money, even though the software ran autonomously without the developer\u2019s direct involvement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Last summer, a Manhattan jury found Storm <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/decrypt.co\/333790\/jury-tornado-cash-developer-storm-guilty-money-transmitting\" target=\"_blank\"><span>guilty<\/span><\/a><span> of operating an illegal money transmitter, but failed to reach verdicts on two other money laundering and sanctions evasion charges. Storm appealed the verdict. Last month, the Trump DOJ <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/decrypt.co\/360521\/trumps-doj-seeks-october-retrial-tornado-cash-developer\" target=\"_blank\"><span>filed<\/span><\/a><span> to try the developer again for <\/span><span>conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit sanctions evasion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>But late last month, Storm\u2019s attorneys thought they might have caught a break. On March 25, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled, in a seemingly unrelated music copyright case, that Cox\u2014a major internet service provider\u2014could not be held liable for the illegal actions of its customers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In a letter to Judge Failla sent last week, Storm\u2019s lawyers argued the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling\u2014namely, that Cox\u2019s awareness that some of its customers might illegally stream music did not amount to an <\/span><i><span>intent<\/span><\/i><span> on Cox\u2019s part to infringe on music copyrights\u2014had direct bearing on their case.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>They specifically highlighted how the Trump administration itself backed Cox\u2019s position that the internet giant should not be considered supportive of the illegal actions of some of its users. The Supreme Court ultimately found that argument convincing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>But today, in a blunt, three-page letter, U.S. attorneys for the Southern District of New York rejected the argument that the Cox decision should have any bearing on Storm\u2019s case.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Cox went out of its way to discourage users from engaging in copyright infringement with policies that ended the vast majority of identified misconduct, the DOJ said. Further, Cox\u2019s internet services could be used by customers for a wide variety of purposes besides copyright infringement, prosecutors wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In contrast, they argued, Storm was personally aware of the misconduct of some Tornado Cash users and did not intervene to stop it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The Trump DOJ further alleged in Tuesday\u2019s letter that there is no evidence a crypto privacy service like Tornado Cash was capable of \u201csubstantial or commercially significant\u201d noncriminal uses. That claim is all but certain to irk crypto privacy champions, who <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/decrypt.co\/352198\/decrypt-2025-person-of-the-year-donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\"><span>contend<\/span><\/a><span> all digital asset users have a right to keep their financial transactions private.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThe defendant\u2019s conduct simply is not comparable to the conduct at issue in <\/span><i><span>Cox<\/span><\/i><span>,\u201d the DOJ said Tuesday. \u201cIn any event, a civil copyright case has no relevance here in the first place.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The DOJ\u2019s push to retry Roman Storm is notable given the Trump administration\u2019s aggressively pro-crypto agenda. Last year, on multiple occasions, the DOJ <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/decrypt.co\/336327\/tornado-cash-roman-storm-doj-crypto-charges\" target=\"_blank\"><span>pledged<\/span><\/a><span> to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/decrypt.co\/313898\/doj-will-shutter-crypto-unit\" target=\"_blank\"><span>stop prosecuting <\/span><\/a><span>crypto privacy software developers, to the crypto industry\u2019s elation. Yet federal prosecutors have sent multiple such developers <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/decrypt.co\/347601\/developer-bitcoin-app-samourai-sentenced-5-years-prison\" target=\"_blank\"><span>to<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/decrypt.co\/349305\/samourai-wallet-cto-william-hill-sentenced-four-years-prison\" target=\"_blank\"><span>prison<\/span><\/a><span> in the interim, a state of affairs of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/decrypt.co\/362519\/crypto-privacy-tool-laws-very-bad-state\" target=\"_blank\"><span>great concern<\/span><\/a><span> to leading privacy advocates.<\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<h3>Daily Debrief Newsletter<\/h3>\n<p>Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In brief The DOJ rejected Roman Storm\u2019s argument that a recent Supreme Court ruling should lead to his case&#8217;s dismissal. [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":69296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[220],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tien-dien-tu"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}