Federal judge administering the prosecution of the Roman Storm refused to command the Department of Justice to Check its notes For any materials it may have missed that will help the Tornado Cash Developer at the end of a 30-minute hearing Friday morning, even though he told the government that it should not have any disclosure issues.
Judge Katherine Polk Failla also ruled that there were no concerns over Brady’s violation of the Department of Justice Financial Crime Implementation Network talks (FINCEN) About whether the mixers need to register as money -sending – the talk that prosecutors are chasing Samaurai’s purse developers to Fincen officials, but not the prosecutors in Storm’s case – one of the DOJ’s representatives at the telephone conference on Friday.
If the judge finds that prosecutors have suppressed information, it could affect the case to move forward.
“I will not need further analysis based on representations made without additional material of this type, and based on my views I do not believe the material is exculpatory,” he said.
“There is a difference between ‘this is something I want to know’ and ‘this is a violation of Brady,'” the judge said, referring to a high -high court that requires prosecutors to share any and all information that can help a defendant’s defendant team.
Storm defense attorneys argue that they need to know when prosecutors have learned in their case about Fincen’s conversation.
“They plan to say that they will charge a conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitter,” said defense lawyer Brian Klein. “My question is who should they be licensed? … It’s all in the same issue. They just dropped a subpart … but they still say they charge an unlicensed money business.”
Thane Rehn, a prosecutor who worked in the DOJ case against Sam Bankman-fried, said his team would not argue that Tornado Cash needed to secure a license.
“The word ‘license’ does not apply here and the jury will not be taught licensing issues … what we intend to prove in the trial is aware of the defendant that they are delivering funds that come from criminals,” he said.
The judge made many points asked prosecutors if they planned to change any other theories or charges in the weeks leading to the trial, saying that doing so may not be fair to defense. The test should be kicking in less than two months.
Read more: The DOJ will still pursue the Roman storm case despite the Blanche memo, prosecutors say
