- President Trump confirmed he is examining the case of Keonne Rodriguez, directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to review the file just days before Rodriguez reports to prison.
- The Samourai Wallet co-founder faces a Friday deadline to begin a five-year sentence for operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.
- The review challenges the DOJ’s controversial stance that writing non-custodial privacy code constitutes a financial crime.
President Donald Trump said on Monday that he plans to examine the case of Keonne Rodriguez, the co-founder of the Bitcoin privacy wallet Samourai.
The comments came after Trump was asked about the possibility of clemency during an afternoon event at the White House.
The president confirmed that he knew about the case and stated that it would receive further review. US Attorney General Pam Bondi was present during the exchange, and Trump directed her attention to the matter.
Rodriguez was sentenced last month to five years in federal prison. He is scheduled to report to prison on Friday. His sentence relates to a charge of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.
The Samourai Wallet prosecution
Rodriguez and his co-founder, William Longeran Hill, created Samourai Wallet in 2015. The software allowed Bitcoin users to control their own funds while using privacy features designed to reduce public tracking of transactions.
One of these features, known as Whirlpool, allowed users to mix coins between addresses they already controlled, without sending funds to a central operator.
The Plea Deal Gamble
Federal prosecutors arrested both developers in April last year. The Department of Justice (DoJ) accused them of running an illegal money transmitting service and facilitating criminal activity.
Authorities claimed the software processed more than $2 billion in Bitcoin transactions, including funds linked to dark web markets.
Both developers faced the risk of sentences as long as 25 years if the case went to trial. Instead, they accepted plea agreements during the summer. Rodriguez received the maximum five-year sentence allowed for the charge, while Hill received a four-year prison term.
Dispute Over Money Transmission Laws
The case has drawn attention because Samourai Wallet did not take custody of user funds. Since 2013, the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has said that money transmitters are businesses that control customer funds.
That guidance was repeated in 2019, with specific reference to non-custodial software tools.
Court records show that prosecutors contacted FinCEN before filing charges and were told that Samourai did not clearly fit the definition of a money transmitter.
Despite this, the government pursued the case under conspiracy laws. Prosecutors argued that privacy tools could still qualify as illegal transmitters if they played a role in moving criminal funds.
Rodriguez disagreed with this interpretation but accepted the plea deal to avoid a longer prison term. His sentence also includes three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000.
Developers and privacy advocates argue that the case has discouraged work on privacy tools for public blockchains. They say private digital transactions were a core idea behind Bitcoin and that legal pressure on software creators threatens that principle.
Rodriguez compared the conviction of Roman Storm, a co-founder of the Ethereum-based privacy tool Tornado Cash. Storm was convicted in August on similar charges.
Related: DOJ Rejects Roman Storm’s Plea as Tornado Cash Verdict Will Stand
Interestingly, after President Trump returned to office, the Justice Department dropped several criminal cases that began during the Biden administration. The prosecution of Rodriguez and Hill, however, remained active.
Related: SBF Lobbies for Trump Pardon as ‘Political Victim’; Markets Price 2025 Clemency Odds at Just 4%
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Source: https://coinedition.com/trump-reviews-samourai-wallet-case-keonne-rodriguez-clemency/
