Samourai co-founder claims Biden-era lawfare in calling for Trump pardon

cointelegraph2025-12-19 tarihinde yayınlandı2025-12-19 tarihinde güncellendi

Özet

Keonne Rodriguez, co-founder of Samourai Wallet, is publicly requesting a pardon from President Donald Trump after pleading guilty to operating an unlicensed money transmitter and receiving a five-year sentence. Rodriguez claims his prosecution was "lawfare" by a "weaponized Biden DOJ" with no victims involved. His plea mirrors language used in successful pardon applications, such as those for Silk Road's Ross Ulbricht and former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao. Rodriguez expressed hope that Trump, who previously stated he would "take a look" at the case, will view the prosecution as an anti-innovation, anti-American attack and grant him and co-founder William Hill a pardon.

Keonne Rodriguez, who pleaded guilty to one felony count related to his role at Samourai Wallet, is calling on US President Donald Trump to pardon him, citing similar language that has been successful in previous pardon applications.

In a Thursday X post, Rodriguez said he would report to prison on Friday, where he will serve a five-year sentence for operating an illegal money transmitter. The Samourai co-founder claimed there were no “victims” to his crime, and blamed his incarceration on “lawfare perpetrated by a weaponized Biden DOJ.”

In a message tagging Trump, Rodriguez expressed hope that the US president would issue a federal pardon for him and William “Bill” Lonergan Hill, another Samourai executive who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years. Rodriguez blamed “activist judges” for his legal troubles, claiming he was targeted by a “political anti-innovation agenda.”

“I maintain hope that [Trump] is a fair man, a man of the people, who will see this prosecution for what it was: an anti innovation, anti american, attack on the rights and liberties of free people,” said Rodriguez. “I believe his team [...] and others truly want to end the weaponization of the DOJ that the previous administration wielded so effectively [...] I believe he will continue to wield that power for good and pardon me and Bill.”

Related: Samourai Wallet co-founders to now plead guilty to US charges

Rodriguez’s public plea followed Trump's statement that he would “take a look” at a pardon for the Samourai co-founder, claiming that he had no knowledge of the case. It’s unclear whether Rodriguez filed an official application for a pardon or is relying on public statements to get the president’s attention.

Other crypto execs successfully lobbied for a Trump pardon

One of Trump’s first acts as president in January was to issue a pardon for Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who had been serving a life sentence for his role in creating and operating the darknet marketplace.

Former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who pleaded guilty to one felony in 2023 related to the exchange’s Anti-Money Laundering program, served four months in prison but also received a pardon from the president. Trump later said he “[knew] nothing about” Zhao when asked about the pardon in a November interview.

Rodguiez’s language addressing Trump mirrored comments from the White House on previous pardons. For example, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said it was a “weaponization of justice from the previous administration” when the president commuted the sentence of David Gentile, who was convicted of defrauding “thousands of individual investors in a $1.6 billion” scheme in 2024.

Crypto users on Polymarket were not given the choice of betting on the odds of a Trump pardon of Rodriguez as of Friday. At the time of publication, Trump ally Steve Bannon had the highest odds, at 9%.

Magazine: When privacy and AML laws conflict: Crypto projects’ impossible choice

Trend Kriptolar

CitreaCTR

wrapped stUSDTWSTUSDT

Velodrome FinanceVELODROME

BrevisBREV

PancakeSwapCAKE

JUSTJST

İlgili Sorular

QWhat crime did Keonne Rodriguez plead guilty to and what is his sentence?

AKeonne Rodriguez pleaded guilty to one felony count related to operating an illegal money transmitter and was sentenced to five years in prison.

QWho is the other Samourai executive mentioned in the article and what was his sentence?

AThe other executive is William 'Bill' Lonergan Hill, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years in prison.

QWhich two prominent figures in the crypto space did President Trump previously pardon, as mentioned in the article?

APresident Trump pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht and former Binance CEO Changpeng 'CZ' Zhao.

QWhat reason does Rodriguez give for his prosecution, and what does he hope President Trump will do?

ARodriguez blames his prosecution on 'lawfare perpetrated by a weaponized Biden DOJ' and 'activist judges,' and he hopes President Trump will issue a federal pardon for him and his colleague.

QAccording to the article, what was the stated reason for the pardon of David Gentile, as an example of similar language used by the White House?

AThe stated reason for David Gentile's commutation was a 'weaponization of justice from the previous administration.'

İlgili Okumalar

Alert: Major Token Unlocks for 10 Altcoins This Week! Here's the Day-by-Day, Hour-by-Hour List

**Attention: Major Token Unlocks in 10 Altcoins This Week!** The cryptocurrency market experienced a downturn last week due to a recent hack and geopolitical influences. Notably, the ColdCard hardware bitcoin wallet was compromised, leading to the theft of user assets from 2021 and earlier. This week, however, significant token unlocks are scheduled for several altcoins. The unlock schedule, based on UTC+3 (Turkish Time), is as follows: * **4 Aug, 03:00: Lagrange (LGR)** - $1.38M (15.04% of market cap) * **5 Aug, 03:00: Proof (PROOF)** - $39.11M (119.59% of market cap) * **5 Aug, 03:00: Power Protocol (POWER)** - $1.62M (8.93% of market cap) * **5 Aug, 03:00: Verona (VERONA)** - $1.37M (12.61% of market cap) * **5 Aug, 11:00: Ethena (ENA)** - $15.28M (1.80% of market cap) * **6 Aug, 03:00: Goldfinger (GF)** - $11.52M (5.05% of market cap) * **7 Aug, 03:00: Infinity (INF)** - $2.31M (20.30% of market cap) * **8 Aug, 03:00: Stable (STABLE)** - $28.75M (3.55% of market cap) * **9 Aug, 03:00: Name (NAME)** - $48.47M (74.54% of market cap) * **9 Aug, 03:00: Move (MOVE)** - $1.22M (3.90% of market cap) *This is not investment advice.*

cryptonews.ru1 saat önce

Alert: Major Token Unlocks for 10 Altcoins This Week! Here's the Day-by-Day, Hour-by-Hour List

cryptonews.ru1 saat önce

List of Most Popular Altcoins by Recent Hourly Searches Published!

Cryptocurrency data platform CoinGecko released a list of the most popular altcoins based on user searches over the last three hours. Pudgy Penguins ($PENGU) leads the trending list, followed by Catecoin (CATE) and Bless ($BLESS) in the top three. According to CoinGecko, $PENGU's price increased by 3.9% in the last 24 hours. CATE, ranked second, surged 126.2% over the same period, while $BLESS saw a 24-hour gain of 86.1%. What IF (IF) also stands out with a 41.9% daily increase. The list of most searched cryptocurrencies and their total market capitalization over the past three hours is as follows: 1. Pudgy Penguins ($PENGU) – $389.13 million 2. Catecoin (CATE) – $19.62 million 3. Bless ($BLESS) – $32.72 million 4. Aerodrome Finance (AERO) – $385.03 million 5. Hyperliquid (HYPE) – $11.43 billion 6. Ethereum (ETH) – $224.17 billion 7. Chainlink (LINK) – $6.17 billion 8. Aave (AAVE) – $1.42 billion 9. What IF (IF) – $31.24 million 10. Polkadot (DOT) – $1.34 billion 11. Bitcoin (BTC) – $1.27 trillion 12. Virtual Protocol (VIRTUAL) – $366.19 million 13. Algorand (ALGO) – $758.15 million 14. Cash Cat (CASHCAT) – $41.81 million 15. Solana (SOL) – $42.38 billion *This is not investment advice.

cryptonews.ru3 saat önce

List of Most Popular Altcoins by Recent Hourly Searches Published!

cryptonews.ru3 saat önce

For $100,000 a Month: Truth Social Sells Access to Trump's Posts to Investment Firms

In August 2026, Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) launched Truth API, a paid data service offering real-time access to posts from influential Truth Social accounts, including Donald Trump's, for institutional and algorithmic trading firms. Subscriptions reportedly cost up to $100,000 monthly, with discounts for long-term contracts. TMTG's CEO framed it as a strategy to monetize platform assets and create shareholder value. The move drew criticism from lawmakers, including Democrats Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff, who called for an SEC investigation, and Republican Bill Cassidy, who criticized the "sale" of privileged access. An AI analysis notes this creates a market risk architecture similar to past incidents where algorithms rapidly traded on unverified social media posts, raising questions about accountability for potential misinformation or manipulation.

cryptonews.ru4 saat önce

For $100,000 a Month: Truth Social Sells Access to Trump's Posts to Investment Firms

cryptonews.ru4 saat önce

Strategy leaves preferred STRC dividend at 12% as price still below par

Strategy's preferred STRC shares remain priced significantly below their $100 par value, closing July at $89.46 despite a monthly gain. The company confirmed its August dividend will hold at the recently increased 12% annual rate, paid semi-monthly. Management's stated objective is for the shares to trade at $99-$100, though no timeline was given. The firm reported a large Q2 net loss due to unrealized losses on its Bitcoin holdings but has built a $3.75 billion cash reserve to support preferred dividend payments for over two years. It has also begun repurchasing STRC shares while they trade below par.

cointelegraph5 saat önce

Strategy leaves preferred STRC dividend at 12% as price still below par

cointelegraph5 saat önce

Bitcoin Withdrawals Continue: 8 Years of Storage in a Coldcard Cold Wallet Ended in Zero

Coldcard Hardware Wallet Hacked: Losses Mount Due to Vulnerable Seed Generation A critical vulnerability in Coldcard hardware wallets has led to a continued wave of fund thefts. According to Galaxy Research, the total stolen has reached 1,367.05 BTC (approx. $88.6 million) from 4,585 addresses, a significant increase from the initial 594.5 BTC reported on July 30, 2026. Most of the stolen funds remain on the attackers' addresses. The issue is not with the current firmware, which Coinkite has updated, but with seed phrases generated on vulnerable devices between March 2021 and the release of fixed firmware versions. Due to a programmer error, devices switched from using a hardware random number generator to the software-based Yasmarang generator, which was initialized with publicly accessible data like the chip's serial number. This made the seed phrases predictable through offline brute-force attacks, meaning wallets remain at risk until funds are moved to a new wallet generated with the patched firmware. Affected devices include Mk2/Mk3 with firmware 4.0.1–4.1.9 (and up to 5.0.3), Mk4/Mk5 up to version 5.6.0, and Q models up to 1.5.0Q. The only exceptions are seeds created with a high-entropy method like at least 50 independent dice rolls or a strong unique BIP-39 passphrase. All other owners must generate a new seed on the fixed firmware and transfer their assets. A case highlighting the human impact involves a 39-year-old long-term investor who lost 2 BTC (approx. $130,000) in minutes. He had accumulated the Bitcoin over eight years through physical labor, viewing it as a financial lifeline and a retirement plan in a country suffering from hyperinflation. His story underscores that even conservative "buy and hold in cold storage" strategies can be compromised by such underlying technical flaws. From a technical perspective, this incident echoes historical failures where weak random number generators undermined cryptographic security, challenging the assumption that offline storage is automatically foolproof.

cryptonews.ru5 saat önce

Bitcoin Withdrawals Continue: 8 Years of Storage in a Coldcard Cold Wallet Ended in Zero

cryptonews.ru5 saat önce

İşlemler

Spot

Popüler Makaleler

ERA Nasıl Satın Alınır

HTX.com’a hoş geldiniz! Caldera (ERA) satın alma işlemlerini basit ve kullanışlı bir hâle getirdik. Adım adım açıkladığımız rehberimizi takip ederek kripto yolculuğunuza başlayın. 1. Adım: HTX Hesabınızı OluşturunHTX'te ücretsiz bir hesap açmak için e-posta adresinizi veya telefon numaranızı kullanın. Sorunsuzca kaydolun ve tüm özelliklerin kilidini açın. Hesabımı Aç2. Adım: Kripto Satın Al Bölümüne Gidin ve Ödeme Yönteminizi SeçinKredi/Banka Kartı: Visa veya Mastercard'ınızı kullanarak anında Caldera (ERA) satın alın.Bakiye: Sorunsuz bir şekilde işlem yapmak için HTX hesap bakiyenizdeki fonları kullanın.Üçüncü Taraflar: Kullanımı kolaylaştırmak için Google Pay ve Apple Pay gibi popüler ödeme yöntemlerini ekledik.P2P: HTX'teki diğer kullanıcılarla doğrudan işlem yapın.Borsa Dışı (OTC): Yatırımcılar için kişiye özel hizmetler ve rekabetçi döviz kurları sunuyoruz.3. Adım: Caldera (ERA) Varlıklarınızı SaklayınCaldera (ERA) satın aldıktan sonra HTX hesabınızda saklayın. Alternatif olarak, blok zinciri transferi yoluyla başka bir yere gönderebilir veya diğer kripto para birimlerini takas etmek için kullanabilirsiniz.4. Adım: Caldera (ERA) Varlıklarınızla İşlem YapınHTX'in spot piyasasında Caldera (ERA) ile kolayca işlemler yapın.Hesabınıza erişin, işlem çiftinizi seçin, işlemlerinizi gerçekleştirin ve gerçek zamanlı olarak izleyin. Hem yeni başlayanlar hem de deneyimli yatırımcılar için kullanıcı dostu bir deneyim sunuyoruz.

630 Toplam GörüntülenmeYayınlanma 2025.07.17Güncellenme 2026.06.02

Tartışmalar

HTX Topluluğuna hoş geldiniz. Burada, en son platform gelişmeleri hakkında bilgi sahibi olabilir ve profesyonel piyasa görüşlerine erişebilirsiniz. Kullanıcıların ERA (ERA) fiyatı hakkındaki görüşleri aşağıda sunulmaktadır.