US President Donald Trump says he will review the case of convicted Samourai Wallet developer Keonne Rodriguez and explore possible pardons.
That comes after Trump issued pardons to other cryptocurrency founders and developers throughout the year, amid a broader deregulation of the digital asset space.
Trump says he will investigate the Samourai Wallet developer’s case
Samourai Wallet co-founders Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill were sentenced on November 19 to five and four years in prison, respectively. Their charges stem from their involvement in the cryptomix protocol.
Both co-founders had initially pleaded not guilty, but then agreed to plead guilty to charges of operating an illegal money transmitter in July.
Rodriguez and Hill subsequently faced at least 25 years in prison on charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmission business. The first charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, the second carries a maximum prison sentence of five years.
Asked whether he would consider pardoning Rodriguez at a news conference on the Mexican border at the White House on Monday, Trump said said that he has ‘heard of the matter’ and that he will ‘look into it’.
“Okay, let’s look into it. You know, you’re going to have to tell me. I don’t know anything about it, but we’ll look into it,” he added.
Rodriguez says: “Sound works”
Privacy advocates have long advocated for Rodriguez and Hill, along with Roman Storm, co-founder of Tornado Cash. They argue that developers should not be held responsible for the actions of users of the software the developers created.
In an X post on Monday, Rodriguez, who begins his time behind bars this week, thanked his supporters for the “sustained noise” that he says is working.
Rodriguez says “sound works” (source: X)
“Thank you to everyone urging Donald Trump to pardon Bill and me. Let’s get this over the line,” he wrote.
Rodriguez said in a interview with Bitcoin advocate Natalie Brunell last Friday saying he thought there was a chance he could be pardoned if his case were presented to Trump and top officials in his administration.
He also referred to the US Department of Justice (DOJ), which he said was used as a weapon against Trump by the previous administration. Rodriguez believes that when Trump is presented with the facts in his case, he will see that he too was a victim of the gun-toting DOJ.
Trump pardoned high-profile crypto figures this year
Since entering the White House for a second term in January, Trump has pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) and Ross Ulbricht.
CZ pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act in November 2023 for failing to implement proper anti-money laundering (AML) and know-you-customer (KYC) controls on the exchange during his time as the platform’s CEO.
Binance had to pay a $4.3 billion fine to regulators and CZ had to resign as CEO as part of the settlement. In addition, CZ served four months in prison.
After granting the pardon, Trump said CZ was the target of the Biden administration’s “witch hunt.”
Ulbricht, the founder of the defunct Silk Road marketplace, was also pardoned by Trump for his life sentence.
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