Legal professionals representing Twister Money founder Roman Storm have requested for extra time to battle a submitting by US prosecutors that seeks to take away their “expert” witnesses on the grounds that they might “waste time” and “confuse the jury.”
The US prosecution submitted the witness movement on June 6. In a submitting submitted in the present day, Storm’s attorneys mentioned they want extra time to oppose the prosecution’s 60-page movement that desires eight of their defensive arguments thrown out.
A complete of 40 pages are devoted to barring or limiting Storm’s 5 skilled witnesses and one non-expert witness. The defence had deliberate to debate in court docket varied crypto matters, together with the significance of privateness, tokenomics, transaction tracing, and know-your-customer protocols.
Nevertheless, the federal government argues these testimonies are a “Trojan horse,” and that most of the witnesses will confuse and waste the jury’s time with broad and imprecise arguments.
😔💔 I’m Roman Storm. I poured my soul into Twister Money—software program that’s non-custodial, trustless, permissionless, immutable, unstoppable. In 31 days, I face trial. The DOJ desires to bury DeFi, saying I ought to’ve managed it, added KYC, by no means constructed it. SDNY is making an attempt to crush…
— Roman Storm 🇺🇸 🌪️ (@rstormsf) June 13, 2025
Prosecutors argued, “There are multiple deficiencies in the proposed testimony, including that they are inappropriate subjects for expert testimony, lack a reliable methodology or basis in facts and data, or are irrelevant, unfairly prejudicial, and confusing to the jury.”
“The Court should exercise its gatekeeping authority and preclude such impermissible expert testimony,” they added.
Storm’s authorized staff requested to increase the June 16 deadline by two days in order that it could possibly reply to the federal government’s movement.
The federal government opposes this regardless that, in line with the defence, it could possibly nonetheless file its motions on the unique due date, and that it additionally requested an extension if one is ever granted to Storm’s authorized staff.
Roman is going through a number of fees for working the crypto mixer Twister Money. Final month, the Division of Justice dropped plenty of fees regarding working an unlicensed cash transmitting enterprise.
It saved different fees towards Storm, equivalent to one regarding cash laundering.
Prosecutors are additionally not calling Twister Money a “financial institution,” and the defence accused the federal government of withholding proof that includes communication with FinCEN workers that contradicts the preliminary monetary establishment classification.
ETH Basis provides $500K to Twister Money
Storm’s not too long ago un-sanctioned crypto mixer is seen as a bastion of privateness by many crypto proponents who consider the US fees are an overreach on coding rights.
Storm mentioned in the present day, “If I lose, DeFi dies with me. The dream of financial freedom, the code I believed in — it all fades into darkness.”
Hours later, the Ethereum basis introduced it’s donating $500,000 to Storm’s authorized defence and can match an additional $750,000 in donations from the neighborhood.
