Tornado Cash Co-Founder's Defense Team Seeks Dismissal of Case

According to Odaily, the defense team of Roman Storm, co-founder of Tornado Cash, has submitted a series of new documents in an attempt to dismiss the case against him before the trial begins. They argue that the prosecution has overstepped its authority in its final pre-trial motion. In response to the government's motion to dismiss the trial against Storm, his defense team submitted a reply last Friday, arguing that the case against him should be dismissed because the government has not taken sufficient measures to prove that Storm actively participated in the crimes alleged in the indictment. "In fact, as the government admits, when criminals began to abuse the Tornado Cash protocol, it was immutable and anyone with an internet connection could use it," the motion said. Most of the documents questioned the government's description of Tornado Cash as a "money transfer business", a term that even caught the attention of Senators Ron Wyden and Cynthia Lummis. They wrote a letter opposing the government's interpretation of the term, which was also included in Storm's motion. Storm's lawyers argued that characterizing Tornado Cash as a money transmission institution "...violates due process, the principle of leniency, and the principle against innovative structures." In other motions, the lawyers argued that the government prosecutor should be forced to provide certain communications with Dutch authorities, and that the seizure of his cryptocurrency hardware wallet violated the "Fourth Amendment". Previously in April, the US Department of Justice dismissed a motion by Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm to revoke the criminal charges against him, stating that the defendant's submitted documents raised controversial facts that the jury should weigh.