Roman Storm’s Lawyers Signal Continuance If Court Allows Hacker’s Testimony

Attorneys representing Tornado Cash co-founder and developer Roman Storm have suggested they may request a brief continuance for his criminal trial if a judge denies a motion to exclude a particular witness.

In a Thursday filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), Storm’s legal team moved to exclude testimony from an unnamed witness who is the “claimed perpetrator of an alleged hack who allegedly used Tornado Cash.” His attorneys argued that prosecutors disclosed the witness after a scheduled deadline, also claiming their testimony could be “highly prejudicial” to Storm.

“[The testimony] would be unfairly prejudicial as it would likely confuse and mislead the jurors into believing that Mr. Storm was involved in the underlying purported hack or intended to facilitate it, which is not true,” said the Thursday filing. “The testimony would also be unfairly prejudicial because it is likely to evoke an angry response from jurors, which would likely spill over to Mr. Storm.”

The lawyers added:

“[T]his Court should exclude [the witness]. If this Court denies this motion, Mr. Storm reserves the right to request a brief continuance of the trial date.”

If Storm’s legal team were to request a continuance at the eleventh hour, it’s unclear if Judge Katherine Failla would grant it. The Tornado Cash co-founder’s criminal trial is scheduled to begin jury selection on Monday, roughly two years after he was indicted on charges of money laundering, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitter and conspiracy to violate US sanctions.

Related: Judge signals Tornado Cash sanctions may be barred from Roman Storm trial

The filing came less than 24 hours after interim SDNY US attorney Jay Clayton pushed back against Storm’s opposition for certain witnesses, whom he called “victims” of crimes involving Tornado Cash. Failla is likely to issue a ruling on the motions by Friday, ahead of the trial start date.

“SDNY is trying to crush me, blocking every expert witness,” said Storm in a June 13 X post. “If I lose, DeFi dies with me.”

Continued support from crypto and blockchain figures

Since Storm’s 2023 indictment, many in the crypto industry have defended the Tornado Cash co-founder, arguing that developing the code for the mixing service was not a crime. Paradigm founder Matt Huang, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, the Ethereum Foundation and others contributed thousands of dollars to Storm’s legal fund in preparation for trial.

Alexey Pertsev, another Tornado Cash co-founder and developer, was arrested, tried and found guilty of money laundering related to the mixing service in the Netherlands. He was sentenced to more than five years in prison in 2024.

At the time of publication, the only other significant figure tied to Tornado Cash who has avoided court was Roman Semenov, a co-founder and developer named in the same indictment as Storm. Semenov was still at large at the time of publication, and reports suggested he may have gone into hiding in Russia.

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