Lawyers For Roman Storm May File For A Mistrial After Key Witness Testimony

The legal defense team of Roman Storm is considering whether to file for a mistrial after they were unable to trace key witness testimony back to Tornado Cash, the crypto mixer developer’s lawyers said on Monday.

Roman Storm Defense Team Considers Mistrial Filing

According to reports, Storm’s legal team told U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla they could not verify that funds belonging to witness Hanfeng Leng—who lost $250,000 to a pig butchering scam in 2021—were eventually sent through Tornado Cash.

“Based on our research over the weekend, we can’t find that any of Ms. Lin’s fund went to Tornado Cash,” Inner City Press reported Storm’s counsel as saying. “We need to confer with Mr. Storm about moving for a mistrial.”

If Failla should approve the mistrial motion, Storm’s trial could be dismissed altogether or the DeFi developer could face retrial.

Serious Errors In Tornado Cash Case, Defense Lawyers Say

News of Storm’s potential mistrial filing comes over a week after the defense claimed in a July 12 court document that the prosecution’s case against the high-profile developer contains “serious errors” and “factual inaccuracies” that purportedly “call into question the integrity of its intended presentation to the jury.”

Storm’s lawyers alleged that key Telegram messages from reported co-conspirator Alex Pertsev’s phone, which the prosecution plans to present in court, are “cherry-picked” and “missing information identifying the author of messages that are forwarded.”

“It appears the Telegram messages that were extracted are not accurate,” Storm’s lawyers state in the court filing. “The fact that they are plainly missing critical information undermines their reliability.”

On the same day, the crypto mixer employee begged his social media followers for contributions to his legal defense fund.

“I need to raise $500K in the next few days and $1.5M within a couple of weeks to sustain our fight—covering escalating legal fees, expert witnesses, and research as the case extends beyond the initial 2-week projection,” Storm wrote.

“My team is working nonstop to defend code as free speech, protect software development, and push back against government overreach that threatens us all,” he added.

It is still unclear whether Storm will go forward and push for a mistrial.