The US Treasury told Congress this month that crypto-assets have legitimate uses — including protecting consumer privacy.
Days later, federal prosecutors in Manhattan moved to court to indict the man who built one of the most widely used blenders.
Split Jury, Second Chance
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton filed a letter Monday asking federal Judge Katherine Polk Failla to order a retrial of Roman Storm, the founder of Tornado Cash, in two cases where jurors died last year.
Clayton’s office is seeking trial dates between October 5 and 12, which is expected to last three weeks.
Prosecutors said they were ready to leave in early spring, but Storm’s defense team said it would not be until late 2026.
The DOJ has decided to retry Roman Storm in the fall. Despite failing to convince the jury the first time, despite making obvious mistakes like calling irrelevant witnesses and not understanding the evidentiary analysis of their blockchain evidence, despite many… pic.twitter.com/MRZDHAugT8
– Amanda Tuminelli (@amandatums) March 10, 2026
Last August, a jury convicted Storm of one count – conspiracy to operate a money transfer business without a license – but was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on two others: conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to violate sanctions.
A hung jury does not count as a conviction, leaving prosecutors free to try again. Storm has asked Judge Polk Failla to dismiss even this case, saying that the government has never presented evidence that it intends to help bad actors to embezzle money by using the platform.
Cryptocrime: 40 years in a row
The problems are difficult. Storm wrote to X that a conviction on both retrials could land him in federal prison for up to 40 years.
He candidly described his alleged crime: writing open source code for a protocol he did not control, involving tasks he had never personally performed.
🚨NEW: DOJ asked for another try @TornadoCash the founder @rstormsf in these two cases the jury hung on the first case: money laundering and sanctions violations.
Prosecutors have set a retrial date for early October, as well as Storm’s Rule 29 motion to overturn his conviction…
— Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) March 10, 2026
“The judge simply did not accept that this was a crime,” Storm wrote. “But SDNY prosecutors want to keep trying in hopes of finding a different answer.”
Amanda Tuminelli, chief legal officer at crypto advocacy group DeFi Education Fund, called the lawsuit’s decision “incredibly disappointing.”
He pointed to what he described as improper actions by prosecutors during the original trial — irrelevant witnesses, a weak understanding of blockchain forensics at the heart of the case, and what he called flawed legal reasoning about the third-party developer’s liability.
The Memo I Didn’t Catch
Storm also raised a direct objection. In April, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a memo stating that the Department of Justice is “not a regulator of digital assets” and will stop pursuing cases that effectively enforce regulatory frameworks on crypto.
Storm noted that the same DOJ is now seeking a retrial of its case anyway.
“Same country, same DOJ,” he wrote. “You just applied to try me again.”
Reports indicate that Clayton’s letter was filed the same week the Treasury Department’s conference report acknowledged that some people use crypto mixers for completely legitimate purposes, including keeping their spending habits private.
Whether that admission will contribute to the Storm’s defense remains to be seen. The impeachment motion is scheduled for argument in early April, and a decision is expected before a retrial date is set.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
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