A CoinDesk journalist has accused the US authorities of “weaponising” his previous group chat after Twister Money and Roman Storm’s defence claimed the prosecution misconstrued proof.
Danny Nelson shared a screenshot of the chat on Monday and claimed it confirmed a fellow reporter asking for feedback on the $600 million Axie Infinity hack, and particularly how somebody would money out that sum.
Nonetheless, Storm’s defence argued that the federal government prosecution had wrongly attributed the writing of this message to Alexey Pertsev, one of many builders of Twister Money.
Nelson agreed that the proof has been misrepresented and stated, “Reads a bit differently when you realize it wasn’t him.”
The federal government has weaponized my previous group chat to go after Roman Storm
Considered one of my former reporter colleagues requested all members of the TornadoCash/CoinDesk group chat to reply to the Axie hack.
Prosecutors are presenting this message as Alexey Pertsev’s. Reads a bit… pic.twitter.com/AUSswatHvy
— Danny Nelson (@realDannyNelson) July 14, 2025
The defence has requested that the proof be dismissed, and known as for an inspection into grand jury proceedings to make clear if it has been offered with false info.
The federal government apologised, claiming {that a} formatting error led to the inaccurate attribution and a failure to reveal it as a forwarded message. Nonetheless, it has nonetheless requested that the defence’s movement be denied.
It claimed that its mistake “has no bearing on the authenticity of the chats or their reliability,” and added that it doesn’t “change the fact that the defence possessed the version of the chats that the government intends to use at trial for over seven months before raising this issue three days before trial.”
Twister Money trial underway
The trial towards Storm’s crypto-mixer Twister Money began yesterday. Inside Metropolis Press reported that Storm’s attorneys addressed the Telegram messages, and Decide Failla complained a couple of potential juror discussing crypto with two reporters after telling jurors to not talk about the case.
Final week, varied arguments and terminology have been additionally barred from the trial.
As an example, neither the prosecution nor the defence can be allowed to make use of the phrases “KYC” or “AML,” whereas witnesses aren’t allowed to say phrases reminiscent of “illegal” or “legal.”
