Pardon Samourai Devs, Mr. President
NOTE: SENT TO THE PRESIDENT ON NOVEMBER 20, 2025 VIA whitehouse.gov/contact
Dear Mr. President,
Please consider granting a pardon to Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, the developers of the bitcoin app known as βSamourai Walletβ.
I voted for you in all three elections. I took heat for this from family and supposed friends who were convinced you were a bully or worse. I saw you at an in-person rally in 2016 and knew you were not. You told the story of the sneaky snake that deceived the naive woman and attacked her. You spoke truth to power and pointed out forces of darkness operating in our country.
In 2020, you were at the receiving end of those forces. The election was stolen from you. We saw them change the numbers. We faced censorship from the powers that be for speaking the truth about the steal.
In 2024, you were almost killed. I saw you stand up and yell "Fight!β and I thanked God. I believe our enemies are delusional or evil or both. You stand as a bulwark against that evil. For that you are an inspiration.
To your credit you came from outside of the system. I felt like an outsider as well. That is what drew me to technology and eventually bitcoin. It was meritocratic, disruptive and open.
Bitcoin opens a way for people outside the system to transact despite censors and chokepoints. It makes permissionless online commerce possible, whether in white, grey or black markets. You exonerated Ross Ulbricht of the Silk Road, so you know this. The freedom community is grateful for you making that situation right. It was unjust how Ross was punished.
It's vital for America to uphold Freedom and Justice. Let people live. If someone has broken the law, let it be proven to an impartial judge and jury. In this ideal form, America is a beacon for the rest of the world.
In reality today, I see that light greatly diminished. I refer to the treatment of developers of open source software for digital payments. In particular, I ask you to examine the treatment of the Samourai Wallet Developers, Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill.
While you may not be a bitcoin user, I know you understand money. You once accepted a gold bar as payment for a real estate transaction. You know the value of peer-to-peer transactions and assets that donβt fade. Bitcoin is fixed in supply and unstoppable in transmission. The critical flaw for individuals who use it, however, is in its transparent ledger. I think you can appreciate this since your tax returns were leaked maliciously. Lack of privacy endangers us all.
Keonne and Bill found ways to help users spend bitcoin while obfuscating the origin of their coins. They helped users use bitcoin like it was cash exchanged behind closed doors. Just like your counterparty used gold for their lease deposit on 40 Wall Street in Manhattan in 2011, privately and with no middleman. That this can be done on bitcoin is tremendous for individual liberty and privacy.
The SDNY declared the Samourai Devs guilty of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmission business. What they actually did is publish open source code that let bitcoin users spend coins privately.
They never transmitted money. The app, which was on the Google Play Store for 9 years, was fully non-custodial. FinCEN blessed their non-custodial approach in their VASP guidance.
Keonne and Bill deserve a full pardon. The SDNY created an impossible situation for them. They were forced to plead guilty to the money transmission charge despite it being absurd on its face. This was a self-serve tool for users to spend bitcoin privately. They never took possession of anyone's bitcoin. These men now find themselves at the tip of the spear that is Operation Chokepoint 2.0.
For America to continue to lead the world and protect her citizens, we must reinforce the right for developers to write code confidently, without fear of retribution for the applications they build. Please help to re-enshrine βCode as Speechβ as part of Free Speech by pardoning Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill.
Thank you for your attention to this matter!
