Acting AG Blanche: DOJ has ‘fundamentally changed the game’ for developers

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche appeared to offer some reassurance to software developers as the Justice Department continues its case against Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm and other developers. 

Speaking Monday at the Bitcoin 2026 conference on a panel with FBI Director Kash Patel, Blanche said developers who are not helping third parties commit crimes won’t face charges.

His remarks came in response to a question from Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal about how developers should generally interpret the agency’s approach, referencing both the Tornado Cash and Samourai Wallet cases. Both cases were brought under the Biden administration, but have continued under the Trump administration. 

Last year, Roman Storm, the developer of the crypto mixing service Tornado Cash, was found guilty on a charge of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, but the jury could not come to a conclusion on two more serious charges. These included one charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions.

In November, both Samourai Wallet co-founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill were sentenced in a similar case for operating the Samourai bitcoin mixing service. President Donald Trump has been asked specifically if he would review a pardon for Rodriguez.

Since then, crypto advocates have rallied behind Storm, Rodriguez, and Hill.

“The basic principle is that if you are developing software, if you are a coder, if you are a part of that process and you … are not helping [a] third party [from] using what you developed to commit crimes —  you are not going to be investigated and not going to be charged,” Blanche said on Monday, adding that facts like sanctions evasion and laundering money matter.

“But I really need coders to understand, I really need the industry to understand that we have fundamentally changed the game when it comes to our investigations,” he said.

Blanche, newly serving as acting attorney general after Trump removed former DOJ head Pam Bondi, previously held the role of deputy attorney general. In that position, he issued a memo stating the department would avoid bringing cases that effectively impose regulatory frameworks on digital assets, arguing that oversight should be handled by regulators rather than through criminal enforcement.

The FBI’s Patel, meanwhile, emphasized his focus on pig butchering —  also known as romance scams, where scammers build relationships with victims to lure them into fraudulent investments. 

“You’ll find me continuing that effort this summer on the ground in Cambodia, Burma and Thailand because it is of that magnitude and it is the only way to address it and split the misunderstanding between the actual crime and fraud in the virtual asset space versus the rightful use of bitcoin and virtual assets,” Patel said. 

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