{"id":103388,"date":"2025-12-16T10:12:05","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T10:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/16\/trump-considering-pardon-for-samourai-wallets-rodriguez\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T10:12:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T10:12:05","slug":"trump-considering-pardon-for-samourai-wallets-rodriguez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/16\/trump-considering-pardon-for-samourai-wallets-rodriguez\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Considering Pardon For Samourai Wallet&#8217;s Rodriguez"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"nitro-lazy\">President Donald Trump said he\u2019ll review the case of Keonne Rodriguez, co-founder of Samourai Wallet, as questions mount over the federal conviction of the Bitcoin privacy software developer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>When asked about Rodriguez\u2019s upcoming prison sentence, Trump said, \u201cI\u2019ve heard about it. I\u2019ll look at it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know anything about it,\u201d President Trump said. \u201cBut we\u2019ll take a look.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Rodriguez publicly acknowledged Trump\u2019s sentiment, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/keonne\/status\/2000679933354328441?s=20\">tweeting<\/a> \u201cYour continued noise is working. Thank you to everyone pushing @realDonaldTrump to pardon Bill and me. Let\u2019s get this over the line. #pardonsamourai\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rodriguez, along with co-founder William \u201cBill\u201d Hill, was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-sdny\/pr\/founders-samourai-wallet-cryptocurrency-mixing-service-sentenced-five-and-four-years\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">convicted<\/a> of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, a charge <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/politics\/the-samourai-wallet-trial-a-test-of-financial-privacy-and-developer-freedoms\">stemming<\/a> from Samourai Wallet, a Bitcoin privacy tool that allowed users to mix coins and maintain financial anonymity without giving up custody of their funds.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">JUST IN: \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 President Trump says he will consider a pardon for the CEO of privacy-focused Bitcoin wallet Samourai.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve heard about it, I&#8217;ll look at it. Let&#8217;s take a look at it.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/WfpLPYOlfj\">pic.twitter.com\/WfpLPYOlfj<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BitcoinMagazine\/status\/2000680350578594104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">December 15, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><template data-nitro-marker-id=\"372de9843891598aa58675a785cc4349-1\"\/> <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Details of the Samourai Wallet case<\/h2>\n<p>The case, which began under the Biden administration and continued through the Trump Justice Department, culminated in Rodriguez receiving a five-year sentence and Hill four years, though Hill\u2019s age and recent autism diagnosis led to a reduced sentence.<\/p>\n<p>Critics of the prosecution argue the case represents a dangerous precedent for the cryptocurrency industry. The U.S. Department of Justice <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irs.gov\/compliance\/criminal-investigation\/founders-of-samourai-wallet-cryptocurrency-mixing-service-plead-guilty\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">claimed<\/a> that Samourai Wallet facilitated over $2 billion in unlawful transactions and laundered more than $100 million from criminal sources. However, only the \u201cunlicensed money transmission\u201d charge survived a high-profile trial, raising questions about the strength of the case.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Samourai Wallet\u2019s mixing services, Whirlpool and Ricochet, <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/news\/samourai-wallet-ceo-sentenced-five-years\">were designed to obscure<\/a> the origin of criminal proceeds from activities including drug trafficking, darknet marketplaces, fraud, cybercrime, and murder-for-hire operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Court documents reveal the developers actively encouraged criminal use, describing the service as \u201cmoney laundering for bitcoin\u201d and promoting its tools on darknet forums.<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Justice framed the case as part of a broader crackdown on crypto mixing services. Rodriguez had requested a light sentence, but the court imposed the statutory five-year maximum.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s comments come amid his campaign promises to defend the right to self-custody and financial privacy. During the 2024 Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2024\/07\/27\/trump-bitcoin-conference-harris.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pledged<\/a> to end what he described as the \u201canti-crypto crusade\u201d of the prior administration.<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/politics\/why-trump-should-pardon-the-developers-of-bitcoins-non-custodial-samourai-wallet\">pardon for Rodriguez and Hill would signal a clear commitment<\/a> to those promises, protecting developers from legal exposure for building tools that enhance privacy and security for everyday Americans.<\/p>\n<p>With Rodriguez set to report to prison on December 18 and Hill already sentenced, the Trump administration faces a high-profile decision that could shape the future of financial privacy, software development, and cryptocurrency regulation in the United States.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/news\/trump-to-consider-pardon-samourai-wallet\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Donald Trump said he\u2019ll review the case of Keonne Rodriguez, co-founder of Samourai Wallet, as questions mount over the federal conviction of the Bitcoin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":103389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crypto"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}