Crypto Groups Urge Trump to Stop Roman Storm Retrial

While the DOJ maintains its stance against Storm despite recent comments from an official suggesting “merely writing code” is not criminal, the case is still headed toward a January court conference. Meanwhile, tensions resurfaced in the FTX legal saga after prosecutor Danielle Sassoon testified in a hearing tied to Ryan Salame’s plea deal, which is now central to campaign-finance charges against his former girlfriend, Michelle Bond. With most former FTX executives already sentenced and Sam Bankman-Fried fighting a 25-year conviction, speculation is growing over whether he could pursue a presidential pardon.

Industry Calls to Halt Storm Retrial

More than 65 cryptocurrency firms and advocacy organizations are urging US President Donald Trump to intervene as federal prosecutors weigh a potential retrial of Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm. In a letter, groups including the Solana Policy Institute, Blockchain Association, and DeFi Education Fund pressed the administration to take a more supportive stance toward digital asset innovation , and pushed for all remaining charges against Storm to be dismissed.

The letter called on Trump to direct the IRS and US Treasury to clarify digital-asset tax policy, safeguard decentralized finance from what they described as regulatory overreach, and encourage clearer rulemaking from financial regulators like the SEC and CFTC. However, one of the bigger requests focused specifically on Storm’s case. 

The groups urged the administration to recognize that Storm’s contributions to Tornado Cash were the publication of open-source software rather than participation in criminal activity. They argued that dropping the case would reaffirm the principle that “code is speech” under the First Amendment and signal that the US intends to stay a safe environment for developers building privacy and cryptographic tools.

Storm was convicted of operating an unlicensed money transmission service, which was one of three charges brought against him. The jury did not find him guilty of conspiracy to commit money laundering or conspiracy to violate sanctions. He consistently maintained his innocence, and repeated the rallying cry that “writing code is not a crime.” 

Roman Storm

The Justice Department indicted him in August of 2023, but the case took a more complicated turn after Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Galeotti stated at a recent crypto policy summit that “merely writing code, without ill intent, is not a crime.”

Despite those comments, prosecutors still oppose Storm’s motion for acquittal. Jay Clayton, interim US attorney for the Southern District of New York, filed a brief on Nov. 12 pushing back on Storm’s arguments and signaling the DOJ’s intention to maintain its stance. The parties are set to return to court on Jan. 22, though no sentencing date has been scheduled. 

While the president can influence DOJ priorities, longstanding norms limit direct political intervention in specific criminal cases. 

New Tension in FTX Cases

In other legal news, one of the US attorneys who helped lead the prosecution of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, Danielle Sassoon, testified this week in an evidentiary hearing tied to the plea deal of former FTX Digital Markets co-CEO Ryan Salame. The hearing was held in the Southern District of New York, and focused on Salame’s cooperation and whether prosecutors improperly influenced his decision to plead guilty. This is an issue now central to the criminal case against his former girlfriend, Michelle Bond.

Ryan Salame and Michelle Bond

According to reporting from Inner City Press, Sassoon testified that her team told Salame they would “probably not continue to investigate [his] conduct” if he accepted a plea deal. After Salame pleaded guilty, prosecutors continued investigating matters tied to him, which ultimately resulted in Bond facing campaign finance charges. Sassoon rejected the notion that Salame was tricked by saying she was “not in the business of gotcha or tricking people into pleading guilty.”

Bond pleaded not guilty to a series of campaign finance violations tied to $400,000 in funds routed from FTX to support her 2022 congressional campaign. She argues that prosecutors induced Salame’s guilty plea in a way that taints the charges against her. 

Her case is one of the last remaining prosecution efforts tied to the FTX collapse in November of 2022. If dismissed, it will likely be the end of the criminal proceedings involving former FTX executives aside from Bankman-Fried himself.

Many former FTX leaders are already serving their sentences. Salame began his seven-and-a-half-year term in October 2024. Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research, pleaded guilty and began serving a two-year sentence in November of 2024. Nishad Singh and Gary Wang received sentences of time served. 

Bankman-Fried, meanwhile, is at the center of a lengthy appeals fight after being sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud and conspiracy charges. His legal team returned to court on Nov. 4, arguing he was “never presumed innocent” and was prevented from presenting evidence regarding FTX’s solvency.

There are also rumors in the crypto community about whether Bankman-Fried may seek or receive a pardon from President Donald Trump. The conversation intensified after Trump pardoned former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao in October.