{"id":18046,"date":"2025-12-16T08:09:54","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T08:09:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/samourai-wallet-co-founder-hopes-for-pardon-as-trump-weighs-case\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T08:10:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T08:10:13","slug":"samourai-wallet-co-founder-hopes-for-pardon-as-trump-weighs-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/samourai-wallet-co-founder-hopes-for-pardon-as-trump-weighs-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Samourai Wallet co-founder hopes for pardon as Trump weighs case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-detail__content blocks\">\n<p class=\"is-style-lead\">United States President Donald Trump said he would look into the case of Samourai Wallet developer Keonne Rodriguez, who was recently convicted for his involvement with the crypto mixing protocol.<\/p>\n<div id=\"cn-block-summary-block_11fd941b5ae930fcee5f9c36067f49d9\" class=\"cn-block-summary\">\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__nav tabs\">\n        <span class=\"tabs__item is-selected\">Summary<\/span>\n    <\/div>\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__content\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Trump said he will review the case of Samourai Wallet developer Keonne Rodriguez when asked about the possibility of a pardon.<\/li>\n<li>Rodriguez and Hill pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business after initially denying the charges.<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- .cn-block-summary --><\/p>\n<p>When asked about the case during a Monday press conference, Trump <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/live\/EfAbtXzo8Zk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">said<\/a> he has \u201cheard about\u201d the matter and would \u201clook at it,\u201d opening the door for a potential pardon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOkay, let\u2019s take a look at it. You know, you\u2019ll have to tell me. I don\u2019t know anything about it, but we\u2019ll take a look,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Rodriguez, alongside co-founder William Lonergan Hill, was accused of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business last year, which led to their arrests in April 2024. Both men initially pleaded not guilty, arguing that Samourai Wallet was a non-custodial privacy tool.<\/p>\n<p>Hill\u2019s defense even argued that his autism diagnosis led to a type of \u201cmagical thinking\u201d where he was convinced that the wallet\u2019s design would protect him from legal responsibility.<\/p>\n<p>However, the pair eventually reversed course earlier this year, pleading guilty to the lesser charge of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business in exchange for a more lenient outcome that included dropping the more serious money laundering charge.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p>\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Samourai co-founder is hopeful<\/h1>\n<p>Rodriguez, who is set to report to prison later this week, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/natbrunell\/status\/1999484445502357926\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">said<\/a> in a recent interview appearance that he believes there\u2019s a chance of being pardoned by Trump, whom he described as having been \u201ctouched by a DOJ that was weaponized against him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think when he sees the facts laid out on the table, he will know exactly what\u2019s going on,\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n<p>During the interview, Rodriguez acknowledged that taking the plea deal was his only realistic option, as appealing the case is unlikely after having waived those rights under the agreement.<\/p>\n<p>The plea deal effectively reduced his 25-year sentence to a five-year term tied solely to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. Prosecutors also dropped the more severe charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which significantly altered the legal outcome.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Trump has issued crypto pardons<\/h2>\n<p>Although there\u2019s no certainty that Trump will grant clemency, Rodriguez and Hill\u2019s hopes aren\u2019t without precedent. The pro-crypto president has already pardoned a number of high-profile figures since taking office.<br \/>Among them are Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao, who was pardoned in October after serving a short sentence, the co-founders of BitMEX, and Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road darknet marketplace, who had been serving a life sentence.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>United States President Donald Trump said he would look into the case of Samourai Wallet developer Keonne Rodriguez, who was recently convicted for his involvement with the crypto mixing protocol.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18046"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18048,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18046\/revisions\/18048"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}