Rodriguez uses Ulbricht pardon playbook to free Samourai devs
- The DOJ prosecuted Samourai despite FinCEN saying it was legal, directly criminalizing open-source development.
- Defense strategy shifts to a presidential pardon, replicating the campaign to free Silk Road’s Ross Ulbricht.
- Bitcoiners' tepid response leaves developers with $2M in debt as community focus shifts to price action.
The DOJ ignored its own regulator to prosecute the Samourai Wallet founders. Just six months before the indictment, FinCEN informed the Justice Department the non-custodial software was not illegal. The DOJ proceeded anyway, arguing that writing privacy-enhancing code is a criminal conspiracy.
Lauren Rodriguez, wife of jailed co-founder Keone Rodriguez, says the case reverses a 1990s precedent protecting code as speech. The government’s theory makes any open-source developer liable for how anonymous users might misuse their tools. On TFTC, Marty Bent argues the simultaneous no-knock raids on the developers' homes were a deliberate show of force against the act of building privacy tools.
“The push for a presidential pardon has become the primary strategic objective for the Samourai defense.”
- Lauren Rodriguez, TFTC: A Bitcoin Podcast
The defense is now replicating the campaign to free Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. Activists aim to leverage an estimated 35 to 70 million U.S. Bitcoin owners as a voting bloc politicians cannot ignore. They direct public pressure to billandkeone.org, where supporters can sign petitions and donate toward the developers' $2 million in legal debt.
Community support has been tepid compared to other crypto legal fights. On Rabbit Hole Recap, Matt Odell notes the Bitcoin Policy Institute raised just over $1 million for the defense. This is far less than Tornado Cash developers received from the Ethereum community. Odell argues the majority of Bitcoiners now prefer speculative gains over defending the tools that enable sovereignty.
“Keone Rodriguez is currently writing from a West Virginia prison cell, asking for help to cover $2 million in legal fees and a judicial fine.”
- Matt Odell, Rabbit Hole Recap
The case creates a chilling effect for developers across Bitcoin’s scaling layers. Without a legal victory or pardon, builders of Lightning and eCash protocols remain in the crosshairs. The proposed Clarity Act could offer protections, but Odell fears the rest of the bill only benefits corporate interests. The precedent is set: publishing code is now a prosecutable act.