Tornado Cash trial heats up.
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Prosecutors want the jury shielded from one crucial angle: privacy = protection.Roman Storm’s lawyers referenced crypto users being kidnapped, tortured, and threatened — situations where privacy tools like Tornado Cash literally saved lives.
Now? The U.S. gov is trying to block that argument.
Former SEC chair Jay Clayton, now interim NY Attorney, filed to ban any mention of privacy-based motives or user safety:
“Testimony about gangs, kidnapping, and harm is inflammatory… and calls for jury nullification.”
Wait… you’re prosecuting a privacy tool, then silencing any talk of why people need privacy?
Here’s the backdrop:
⚖️ Storm faces charges of money laundering, sanctions violations, and operating an unlicensed money transmitter. 👨⚖️ Defense: Tornado Cash wasn’t crime-focused — it was built to protect human rights. 🧑💻 Prosecution: Code = crime.
Let that sink in. A developer is being prosecuted…
Not for what he did, but for what others could do with open-source code.If we can’t even talk about why privacy matters in a courtroom…
What does that mean for every encryption developer, every DeFi protocol, and every self-custodied wallet?
#FreeTheCode #TornadoCash #CryptoLaw #PrivacyIsNotACrime #RomanStorm #DeFi #OpenSource #JuryNullification #Bitcoin #Ethereum