US prosecutors have requested a retrial of crypto mixer Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm after a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict on two charges at his trial last year.
US Attorney for Manhattan Jay Clayton asked federal Judge Katherine Polk Failla in a letter on Monday for a trial date to retry Storm on charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate sanctions.
The letter asked the court for the retrial to begin on or around Oct. 5 to 12, with the trial expected to last three weeks. It said prosecutors were prepared to retry the case as early as spring, between March and May, but Storm’s defense lawyers said they weren’t available until late 2026.
In August, a jury convicted Storm of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, but was deadlocked on the money laundering and sanctions violation conspiracy charges, which has allowed prosecutors to retry those charges.
Storm had pleaded not guilty and asked Judge Polk Failla in October to acquit him of the money transmitting charge, arguing prosecutors failed to prove he intended to help bad actors use Tornado Cash.
Clayton wrote in his letter that Storm’s lawyers told prosecutors that setting a new trial date was premature due to the pending acquittal motion, which wouldn’t be resolved until early April, when it is scheduled for argument.
Prosecutors hope for “different answer,” says Storm
Storm posted on X that the two counts the government plans to retry him on could see him spend “up to 40 years in federal prison. For writing open-source code. For a protocol I don't control. For transactions I never touched.”
“A jury already couldn't agree this was criminal. But the SDNY [Southern District of New York] prosecutors want to keep trying with the hope of getting a different answer,” he added.
Amanda Tuminelli, the legal chief at crypto advocacy group the DeFi Education Fund, said the Justice Department’s decision to retry Storm was “incredibly disappointing.”
“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 legal and logical fallacies to their allegations of third-party dev liability, the SDNY will retry Roman Storm,” she added.
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Clayton’s letter comes as a report that the US Treasury submitted to Congress this month acknowledged some lawful uses of crypto mixers, including those who use such services “to maintain more privacy in their consumer spending habits.”
In his X post, Storm also noted that US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche had issued a memo in April saying the Justice Department “is not a digital assets regulator,” and the agency would “no longer pursue litigation or enforcement actions that have the effect of superimposing regulatory frameworks on digital assets.”
“Same country, same DOJ — just filed to retry me anyway,” Storm said.
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