US Federal prosecutors want to retry Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm on the two charges a jury could not agree on last summer. The DOJ filed a letter on March 9 requesting that Judge Katherine Polk Failla set a retrial date for early October.
The move signals that the government is not backing down from one of crypto’s most closely watched criminal cases. Prosecutors are pushing ahead even after the jury deadlocked. They are doing so despite the Trump administration’s stated policy of ending “regulation by prosecution” of digital assets.
Jury Split Left Two Counts Unresolved
A jury in the Southern District of New York found Storm guilty on August 6, 2025, of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. That charge carries a maximum sentence of five years.
But the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict on two far more serious charges: conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate US sanctions. Each carries a maximum of 20 years.
In US federal trials, a guilty verdict requires all 12 jurors to agree. When they cannot reach a consensus, it is called a hung jury. That outcome is neither a conviction nor an acquittal. The constitutional ban on double jeopardy — being tried twice for the same offense — does not apply, so the government is free to retry those charges before an entirely new jury.
Prosecutors had argued during the four-week trial last summer that Storm knowingly operated Tornado Cash as a tool for cybercriminals. They pointed to internal messages and evidence that at least 96% of users accessed the service through a website Storm and his co-conspirators controlled and updated more than 250 times. The defense maintained that Tornado Cash is permissionless, immutable software that Storm could not control once deployed.
DOJ Pushes for October, Defense Wants to Wait
In the March 9 filing, the government said it is prepared to retry Storm as early as this spring. The defense indicated it would not be available until late September or early December. To avoid scheduling conflicts, the government proposed October 5 or 12.
Storm’s legal team has also filed a Rule 29 motion — a request for the judge to overturn the guilty verdict on the grounds that the evidence was legally insufficient. Oral argument is set for April 9. The defense argues that setting a retrial date is premature while that motion is pending. The DOJ disagrees.
“While the Government is aware that the defendant’s Rule 29 motion is currently pending, the Government requests that the Court set a date for the retrial to avoid further unnecessary delays,” prosecutors wrote.
Policy Shifts Frame the Retrial
The Storm prosecution has tested the limits of the Trump administration’s crypto enforcement posture. In April 2025, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a memorandum directing the DOJ to stop “regulation by prosecution” of digital assets. Prosecutors responded by dropping the FinCEN registration portion of the money transmitting charge before trial. They kept the allegation that Storm transmitted funds he knew were linked to criminal activity.
The government’s decision to retry the money laundering and sanctions counts suggests it views the Blanche Memo as limited to regulatory violations. Cases involving alleged facilitation of known criminal conduct, in its view, remain fair game.
Treasury Report Adds Tension
The DOJ’s push for a retrial landed just two days after the US Treasury published a report to Congress recognizing the legitimate uses of crypto mixers. The GENIUS Act report stated that lawful users may use mixers to protect sensitive financial information on public blockchains.
The timing underscores a split within the same administration. Treasury says mixers can serve lawful purposes. The DOJ is seeking to retry the developer of the most prominent mixer on charges carrying up to 20 years each.
Michael Mosier, former acting director of FinCEN, called the report a meaningful recognition of privacy as security. Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal noted its significance given that OFAC had previously imposed a blanket designation on Tornado Cash, which was lifted in March 2025.
What Comes Next
More than 65 crypto organizations have urged President Trump to intervene. The DeFi Education Fund and the Ethereum Foundation have helped push Storm’s legal defense fund past $5 million.
The industry’s core concern remains unchanged. If courts treat deploying open-source smart contract code as money laundering or sanctions evasion, US DeFi developers face severe legal risk. The jury’s inability to agree on those charges the first time suggests the government’s theory is far from settled.
The court has not yet scheduled a sentencing date for Storm’s existing conviction. Legal observers widely expect an appeal once the Rule 29 motion is resolved. Storm’s co-founder, Roman Semenov, remains at large. A Dutch court convicted a third Tornado Cash developer, Alexey Pertsev, of money laundering in 2024. He is appealing the verdict.
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