A top DOJ official says writing code “without ill intent is not a crime.” The promise comes after the conviction of the Tornado Cash developer. The DOJ vows not to use indictments as a lawmaking tool for crypto.

Standing before an anxious audience of cryptocurrency innovators in Wyoming, a senior official from the US Department of Justice delivered the precise message they were desperate to hear: the government’s perceived war on software developers is over.

In a landmark speech, he declared that the simple act of writing code, when done without criminal intent, is not a crime.

The official, Matthew Galeotti, acting assistant attorney general in the DOJ’s criminal division, made the powerful assurances on Thursday at an event hosted by the new crypto advocacy group, American Innovation Project.

His words, met with vigorous applause, represented a dramatic and deliberate shift in tone from a department whose recent actions have sent a chill through the entire developer community.

Galeotti drew a firm line, promising that the DOJ would not weaponize the legal system to indirectly regulate the digital asset space. 

“The department will not use federal criminal statutes to fashion a new regulatory regime over the digital asset industry,” he said. 

The department will not use indictments as a lawmaking tool. The department should not leave innovators guessing as to what could lead to criminal prosecution.

Then came the centerpiece of his address, a clear and unambiguous declaration: “merely writing code without ill intent is not a crime.”

This was not a vague promise. Galeotti directly addressed the legal statute used to convict the developers behind both Tornado Cash and Samourai Wallet, stating that the DOJ would not press charges under that code unless prosecutors have “evidence that a defendant knew of the specific legal requirements and willfully violated it.” 

He went further, extending a shield to projects where “software is truly decentralized and solely automates peer-to-peer transactions, and where a third party does not have custody and control over user assets.”

But those words of reassurance were delivered against the chilling backdrop of recent history.

The speech comes on the heels of two high-profile and deeply controversial victories for US prosecutors.

Most prominent was the conviction of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm for running an unlawful money transmitting business, a verdict that many in the industry saw as a direct criminalization of open-source code.

This is the conflict that has haunted the industry: a seeming disconnect between the department’s top brass and its most aggressive prosecutors.

An April memo from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche had already signaled a more careful approach under the Trump administration, even disbanding the national cryptocurrency enforcement team.

Yet despite that memo, the powerful Southern District of New York (SDNY) pressed forward with its cases against Storm and the Samourai Wallet developers, creating a climate of profound uncertainty and fear.

Galeotti’s speech was a direct attempt to quell that fear and reassert a unified, top-down policy. 

“Developers of neutral tools with no criminal intent should not be held responsible for someone else’s misuse of these tools,” he stated. 

If a third party’s misuse violates criminal law, then that third party should be prosecuted, not the well-intentioned developer.

For an industry that has felt under siege, pouring millions into lobbying efforts to protect its innovators, the speech felt like a potential turning point.

It was a public validation of their core argument.

“The fact that the DOJ acknowledged that software developers should not be held responsible for third parties’ misuse of their code affirms what we have been advocating for years,” said Amanda Tuminelli, executive director of the DeFi Education Fund, in a statement. 

Let’s celebrate this as a moment of progress and remember that there is still more work to be done to change the law permanently.

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