Why President Trump Should Pardon Bitcoin Developers Non-custodial Samurai Wallet

On December 18, a few days before Christmas, Keon Rodriguez, co-founder of Bitcoin Samurai Wallet, must be jailed. His crime? Create software tools that provide Bitcoin users with privacy comparable to that offered by banks. Samurai Wallet, the brand and technology stack built by Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, was shut down by the U.S. government in April 2024 on a variety of charges, including money laundering, but only one charge was stayed after a high-profile trial, the weakest of all charges: “unauthorized transfer.”

What does it mean to send money? According to prosecutors, custody of user funds is no longer a requirement for an MSB license. “A USB cable transfers data from one device to another, and a frying pan transfers heat from the stove to the contents of the pan, but in neither situation do you need to ‘control’ what is transferred. ” If the Justice Department can prosecute Frypan, USB manufacturers had better get lawyers.

Notably, even FinCEN does not agree with the Department of Justice’s new legal interpretation of what constitutes a money transmitter. Guidance at the time stated that non-custodial services could not be money transmitters because they did not control the flow of funds. FinCEN reiterated this fact in a written statement to Justice Department prosecutors, but the charges proceeded anyway. According to Rodriguez, this critical fact was hidden from the defense for almost a year, until it was finally revealed that “the judge denied the motion to introduce this evidence at the hearing without any discussion.” Critics argue that this misconduct by Justice Department prosecutors violates Brady v. Maryland, denying them access to material that could undermine the unauthorized transfer charge, or, in the words of Donald J. Trump, that the prosecution was fraudulent.

Zack Shapiro, director of policy at the Bitcoin Policy Institute, warned the Trump administration and the American software industry about the potential impact of the lawsuit, arguing that “the breakdown of the distinction between tool development and service operation will result in an intolerable level of risk for those building privacy-enhancing and security-critical software.”

“Even though government records undermined the central regulatory theory of the case, Mr. Rodriguez and Mr. Hill ultimately accepted a plea deal in the face of substantial sentencing revelations,” Shapiro added in a letter posted on BPI’s website, calling on the Trump administration to pardon the Samurai Wallet developers.

Fundamentally, the prosecutor’s approach in the Samurai Wallet case risks establishing an influential precedent that threatens the financial privacy of Americans and stifles innovation in the American cryptocurrency industry. This could shape future prosecution and regulatory developments, potentially reclassifying non-custodial services as money transmitters under federal law (requiring national MSB registration with FinCEN), and prompting stricter state-level licensing in jurisdictions such as New York and California.

Mirroring the trial against Ross Ulbricht a decade ago, this fraud case against Samurai Wallet was launched under the Biden administration with the support of anti-crypto politicians who lost the 2025 election that Trump lost on a public mandate. During his campaign, Trump said in his 2024 Bitcoin Nashville speech, “I will always defend the right to self-custody,” and gained significant support from the Bitcoin and crypto industries through their shared vision of making the United States the crypto capital of the world.

“I pledge to the Bitcoin community that the day I take the oath of office, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ anti-crypto movement will end.” – Donald J. Trump, Nashville 2024.

Many libertarians in the broader crypto industry place entrepreneurs like Kionne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill in the same category as Tornado Cash’s Roman Storm, Roman Sterlingoff, and radio host Ian Freeman, viewing them as nothing more than political prisoners of a powerful banking cartel.

Venture capitalist and White House AI and cryptocurrency czar David Sachs should also pay attention to this issue. Otherwise, what does it mean to be a crypto czar? If Bitcoin wallets end up being regulated like banks, despite no counterparty risk, whose interests will actually be protected, Main Street or Wall Street?

The Trump administration was very conservative during the Justice Department’s prosecution and trial of the Samurai Wallet developers, but perhaps unsurprisingly, that stage of the legal battle is over.

It is time for the Trump administration to fulfill its promise to the American people and protect U.S. self-regulation and the crypto industry. To avoid another Ross Ulbricht-style miscarriage of justice, the time has come for President Trump to set the record straight and pardon Kionne Rodriguez, William Lonergan Hill, and the developers of Tornado Cash.

The Bitcoin and cryptocurrency industry has been far behind this effort, and has begun collecting signatures on Change.org, totaling over 5,000 so far and counting, with the only official fundraising campaign on GiveSendGo.

If President Trump were to pardon the developers of Samurai Wallet, it would send a clear signal to those who want to enslave the American people and the world with a surveillance-based central bank digital currency system that the American people will not tolerate it. The United States upholds the fundamental human rights to privacy, dignity, due process, and the presumption of innocence, and does not support the intimidation tactics developed by people like Joseph Gobles, whose privacy is a crime. Massive indiscriminate surveillance, no warrant, no due process; that It’s a real crime.

The post “Why Trump Should Pardon Bitcoin Developers” Non-custodial Samurai Wallet was first published in Bitcoin Magazine and written by Juan Galt.