In a recent court ruling, the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) sanctions against the privacy tool Tornado Cash will not be admissible as evidence in the upcoming trial of developer Roman Storm. This decision was made by District Judge Katherine Polk Failla, who initially considered allowing expert witnesses to testify about the sanctions. However, after hearing arguments from both sides, she decided that discussing the sanctions would be too confusing for the jury. The sanctions, which were initially imposed in August 2022 and later removed, were found to be illegal by a Texas court.
Judge Failla left open the possibility that a key piece of evidence could change her mind before the trial begins. The prosecution has until Wednesday to submit any such evidence. Meanwhile, the judge denied other motions from Storm, including a motion to preclude references to North Korea's state-sanctioned hacking group and a motion to preclude 'inflammatory characterizations' of Storm's TORN sales. The prosecution plans to introduce evidence that Storm profited from his involvement in Tornado Cash, including purchasing multiple homes and selling $12 million worth of TORN tokens after OFAC sanctioned Tornado Cash.
The government will also be allowed to produce evidence from Storm's fellow Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev's phone. The judge ruled that all expert witnesses can testify, with some limitations. It is unclear whether Storm will testify in his own defense, but if he does, he will not be permitted to argue that he had First Amendment protections in his work with Tornado Cash. A final pre-trial conference will be held on Friday, and Storm's trial is expected to begin on June 14 and last for four weeks.