On Thursday, the fate of Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm was once again in the hands of Federal Judge Katherine Polk Failla. Last year, a jury found Storm guilty of conspiring to engage in unauthorized currency transfer activities, but it was unable to reach a consensus on the more serious charges of money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to evade U.S. sanctions. Judge Failla now has several weeks to decide whether to declare him not guilty or to resume the trial.

At this hearing, Storm’s defense team, led by Brian Klein from Cooley LLP, argued that the prosecutor’s decision to transfer the case to New York for trial lacked legitimacy and that the defendant’s intent to commit a crime had not been sufficiently proven. Klein cited the official position of the U.S. Treasury Department, stating that operating a cryptocurrency mixer is a legitimate business activity, as a key basis for the defense. He emphasized that punishing the creator of the software merely because it was misused by third parties would blur the legal distinction between technical neutrality and criminal complicity.

Meanwhile, the prosecution firmly defended the evidence presented during the lengthy trial last year, attempting to prove that Storm knew the tool was being used for illegal purposes but continued to maintain it. If Failla ultimately sides with the government’s view, the case will be postponed until later this year; otherwise, if she supports Storm, she will face pressure from senior officials at the Justice Department regarding how to proceed with this high-profile case.