US v. Storm: No Verdict in Third Week, Jury Back Monday
The jury requested several documents, had questions about venue, and seemed rather eager to go home.
It was the latest thrilling twist in a proceeding that has been full of them:
Today in the criminal trial of Tornado Cash co-creator Roman Storm ...
... absolutely nothing happened.
Well, not quite nothing. The day opened on a truly empty courtroom, as the jury went straight to its deliberations without being seated. Journalists, an indolent class of cretin at the most demanding of moments, eased into the nothingness across benches that deserved a better breed of loiterer.
At a few points throughout the day, the jury sent forth notes: requests for clarifications of the law, for exhibits or transcripts. This was the main motivation to sit in that silent, empty courtroom, apart from the pleasure of sitting, because there was another kind of note, the archetypal note from the jury, the note, the one announcing that the jury had reached a verdict.
Each time Judge Failla's court clerk walked through the forbidden backstage door at the rear of the courtroom, she might have been carrying the note. Today, that did not happen.
Instead, the clerk delivered notes from the jury starting with an inquiry about how the grand jury who approved Storm's indictment had arrived at their decision on venue in SDNY - that is, the crime's connection to the area, a kind of geographical jurisdiction. The prosecution's case for venue is objectively slim, hinging on one hacker who cleaned some ETH in Manhattan and communications with Storm's (non-criminal) investor, Thomas Schmidt of Dragonfly Capital, when Schmidt was in New York.
Judge Failla didn't think the grand jury proceeding was within the scope of things the jury should be worried about, and after some confirmatory back and forth with the defense and prosecution, sent back a note of her own, saying as much.
At other points, the jury requested specific transcripts - they're not provided with full transcripts by default. Near the end of the day, they made two requests. First, they requested transcripts of the specific testimony of witnesses including prosecution witness FBI Special Agent Joseph DeCapua; Anchain AI blockchain expert and witness for the prosecution Philip Werlau; and defense tokenomics expert witness Dr. Stephanie Hurdur of Prism Group.
Second, they informed Judge Failla that they had decided they would go home for the day at 3:30pm. This may have been partly motivated by a gathering storm and flood warnings in Manhattan and Brooklyn (one that a bit later, this writer can report, seems to have blown over).
Judge Failla observed that the documents would take some time to assemble, and decided the jury could go home on the spot, at about 3pm.
Because one juror had an existing Friday conflict, that means deliberations will continue on Monday at 9:30am.
Waiting another three (or more) days for a verdict in this critical trial is frustrating and nerve-wracking - surely for no one more than Roman Storm himself. But for supporters of Storm, it's almost certainly a good sign - it means the jury are applying a careful critical eye to the evidence available.
And under those conditions, and with specific regard to the critical issue of reasonable doubt of Storm's criminal intentions in co-creating Tornado Cash, the defense's side of the ledger may prove just a bit more weighty.
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