Jay Clayton, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) and former Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has responded to the acquittal motion of Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm, criticizing his alleged criminal behavior.
In a petition filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Clayton said Storm’s criminal use of Tornado Cash was “window dressing at best and completely misdirected at worst,” rejecting arguments that he should be allowed to use a civil copyright case in his defense.
The U.S. attorney’s filing follows a Thursday notice from Storm’s lawyers stating that they intend to use the 2026 Supreme Court case, Cox Communications, Inc. vs sony music entertainmentAs part of an argument regarding the Tornado Cash co-founder’s intent to participate in the crimes he is charged with: conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate sanctions.
Clayton said Storm’s conduct “bears no resemblance” to that. cox Case, which involved civil liability for copyright infringement. According to the US Attorney, there is no evidence that the Tornado Cash co-founder implemented effective anti-money laundering measures.
“The defendant’s conduct is not comparable to the conduct at issue in Cox,” Clayton said. “In any event, the civil copyright case has no relevance here in the first place.”
Last August, a jury convicted Storm of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money remittance business, but deadlocked on money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to violate sanctions charges, opening the door to a possible retrial. The case has drawn widespread attention from the crypto industry regarding how developers can be held responsible for their code.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys in the Toofan case are scheduled to meet Thursday.
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Last week, US President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi, replacing her with Deputy AG Todd Blanche as acting head of the Justice Department until the Senate votes on a replacement. Blanch, who previously worked as Trump’s personal attorney, also wrote a memo in April 2025 calling for an end to “regulation by prosecution” at the Justice Department.
Although Blanch did not name Storm, she said the department “will not be taking action against those platforms.” [criminal] enterprises conduct their illegal activities” and called for an end to cases inconsistent with that goal.
Storm cited Blanche’s memo in a March 2016 post after prosecutors called for the Tornado Cash co-founder to be retried in two deadlocked cases.
“The 2 counts carry a sentence of up to 40 years in federal prison,” Storm said. “For writing open-source code. For a protocol I don’t control. For transactions I never touched. A jury already couldn’t agree that this was criminal. But SDNY prosecutors want to continue trying with the hope of getting a different answer.”
It’s unclear how Blanche might use her new role to direct DOJ policy, or how long she will remain as acting AG. Clayton has asked a federal judge to consider a retrial for Storm in October, but no date had been set as of Tuesday.
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