The lawyer representing Roman Storm, co-founder and developer of Tornado Cash, suggested that if the judge denies the motion to exclude a certain witness, they may request a brief postponement of the criminal trial.
In documents submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) on Thursday (July 10), Storm's legal team sought to exclude the testimony of an unnamed witness, who is described as "an accused hacker claiming to have used Tornado Cash." His lawyers argued that the prosecutors disclosed this witness after the scheduled deadline and claimed that their testimony could be "extremely prejudicial" to Storm.
"The testimony would unfairly create bias as it may confuse and mislead jurors into believing that Mr. Storm participated in the alleged hacking or intended to assist in it, which is not true," the documents stated on Thursday. "The testimony would also unfairly create bias as it may provoke an angry reaction from the jurors that could spill over to Mr. Storm."
The lawyers added, "This court should exclude this witness. If this court denies this motion, Mr. Storm reserves the right to request a brief postponement of the trial date."
It remains unclear whether Judge Katherine Failla would grant a last-minute request for a postponement from Storm's legal team. The criminal trial of the Tornado Cash co-founder is set to begin jury selection on Monday, approximately two years after he was indicted on charges of money laundering, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmission business, and conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions.
The document was submitted less than 24 hours after SDNY Acting U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton opposed Storm's objections to certain witnesses, whom he referred to as "victims" involved in the crimes related to Tornado Cash. Failla may rule on the motion before the trial begins on Friday.
"SDNY is trying to crush me, blocking every expert witness," Storm said in a post on X on June 13. "If I lose, DeFi will die with me."
Since Storm was indicted in 2023, many in the crypto industry have defended the Tornado Cash co-founder, arguing that writing code for mixing services is not a crime. Paradigm founder Matt Huang, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, and the Ethereum Foundation have donated thousands of dollars to Storm's legal fund in preparation for the trial.
Another co-founder and developer of Tornado Cash, Alexey Pertsev, was arrested, tried, and convicted in the Netherlands for money laundering related to mixing services. He was sentenced to over five years in prison in 2024.
As of the time of publication, the only significant figure associated with Tornado Cash who has avoided court is Roman Semenov, who is a co-founder and developer facing the same charges as Storm. Semenov remains at large, with reports suggesting he may be hiding in Russia.
Related: XAI previews Grok upgrade, Musk claims AI may discover new physics
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
