Tornado Cash Developer Case: Judge Declines To Order DOJ Review

Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm faces a trial in the United States in July, and a federal judge has declined to order the U.S. Department of Justice to review its records related to the case.

Judge Katherine Polk Failla, in a Friday ruling, declined to order the DOJ to review materials it holds that might be helpful to Tornado Cash (TORN) developer Roman Storm’s legal team.

The judge’s ruling comes as Storm and his defense team prepare for the developer’s trial scheduled for July 2025, CoinDesk reported.

“I’m not going to require a further review based on the representations made that there’s no additional material of this type, and based on my views that I don’t believe the material was exculpatory,” the judge noted.

The judge’s decision is key, as an order finding that prosecutors failed to share all relevant information in their possession with Storm’s legal team could have impacted the defense’s case during trial.

The law requires that prosecutors share with the defendant all information they have that could aid the accused person’s defense. Storm is set to stand trial after the DOJ confirmed earlier this month that the government will proceed with the prosecution of the Ethereum mixer co-founder.

That decision came weeks after the government circulated a memo stating that the DOJ would no longer seek to bring charges against crypto mixing services.

Instead, prosecutors will now go after what they termed “bad actors” within the industry who exploit such solutions to aid illicit activities like money laundering. The DOJ’s crackdown would not be focused on the platforms, but bad players.

The DOJ initially filed charges against Roman Storm and Roman Semenov, another Tornado Cash founder, in August 2023. The charges included operating the mixing service and laundering more than $1 billion.

In February this year, a Dutch court released Alexey Pertsev, a Tornado Cash developer arrested in August 2022 in Amsterdam.