My notes from the Tornado Cash trial today:
The jury continued to deliberate…
At 9:24 AM EST, the jury sent a note with two questions written on it:
(I’m paraphrasing the questions.)
1. Do the sanctioned wallets include intermediary wallets?
2. Do the sanctions follow intermediary wallets?
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After some back and forth with the prosecution and defense, Judge Failla said that she would refer the jury to a chart that includes a list of the sanctioned addresses in response to the first question.
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In response to the second, Judge Failla said that she’d tell the jury that she cannot give them answer.
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The jury also sent a second note asking if they could get the transcripts of Mr. William Lopez to prove venue.
The judge said that the court would provide them with said transcripts.
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Some more background on the back and forth between the judge and the prosecution and defense:
The prosecution stated that they wanted the judge to write that the jury is “hyperfocused on questions that don’t have ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers.” (She didn’t include that in her response note.)
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The prosecution also suggested that the judge mention one of the sanctioned addresses (the “0x0 address”) as well as the Lazarus Group being placed on the SDN list in her note to the jury.
(SDN stands for “Specially Designated Nationals” and the list is a sanctions list published by OFAC.)
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The judge responded to the prosecution by stating “They didn’t ask about the Lazarus Group.”
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The defense requested that the judge respond with “no” and “no” to the jury’s two questions.
“I’m not doing that,” the judge said bluntly.
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The jury shared a note at 12:14 PM EST in which they stated “We’ve made a lot of progress today” and “We’ve reached a natural stopping point.”
The judge read this note aloud to the courtroom just before 12:30 PM EST, when the trial day concluded.
In the judge’s response note, she wished the juror whose mother is celebrating her 90th birthday today a happy birthday.
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The jury will continue deliberating tomorrow at 8:45 AM EST.
