FinCEN Cleared Samourai. The Biden DOJ Charged Them Anyway.

Show Notes

The INSANE story of how two Bitcoin developers were targeted by the Biden DOJ, even though they should never have been charged in the first place... In April 2024, two Bitcoin software developers, Keonne Rodriguez and William "Bill" Lonergan Hill, were arrested in their homes in a pre-dawn militarized raid by the FBI for running Samourai Wallet—a non-custodial Bitcoin wallet—despite no prior warnings and full compliance with the law as they and their advisors understood it. If you want to help PARDON SAMOURAI here are some links: Keonne on X: https://x.com/keonne GET INVOLVED: https://billandkeonne.org/ SIGN THE PETITION : https://www.change.org/p/stand-up-for-freedom-pardon-the-innocent-coders-jailed-for-building-privacy-tools DONATE: https://www.givesendgo.com/billandkeonne They spent the next year and a half in the crippling uncertainty of home arrest, fighting against an adversary with unlimited resources. Keonne was sentenced on November 6, 2025, to the maximum five years in prison, plus an additional fine of $250,000, plus three years of supervised release. Bill was sentenced to four years in prison on November 19, 2025. He will also be responsible for a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release. Both men are facing serious time in jail for writing code that supported the privacy and security of Bitcoin users. This case exemplifies DOJ overreach through a dangerous legal theory that criminalizes open-source code for legitimate privacy purposes. **Developers should not be held liable for bad actors using their software.** PARTNERS & DISCOUNTS: - BLOCKWARE: Mine Bitcoin, lower your tax bill, and stack sats hands-free with Blockware — get started today at https://mining.blockwaresolutions.com/titcoin and use code “titcoin” to get $100 off your first miner on the Blockware Marketplace. - LEDN: Bitcoin-backed lending. Go to https://ledn.io/walker and unlock liquidity WITHOUT selling your bitcoin. - BLOCKSTREAM JADE HARDWARE WALLET: Head to https://store.blockstream.com/ to automatically get 21% off every Blockstream Jade hardware wallet, no code needed, through the end of 2025. Use coupon code WALKER for an extra 10% off! - Buy Bitcoin with River: http://partner.river.com/walker - GET FOLD ($10 in bitcoin): https://use.foldapp.com/r/WALKER 🎧 Subscribe to @WalkerAmerica (THE Bitcoin Podcast) for more Bitcoin content! 📡 THE BITCOIN PODCAST is available on all major platforms: https://bitcoinpodcast.net/podcast • 🟡 Fountain: https://www.fountain.fm/show/68gcLZFDRxOzgGeZmXq6 • 🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0f4Ke6gRTiLij0455nQjPH • 🍎 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bitcoin-podcast/id1694392423 ⸻ WALKER’S LINKS • 🔗 Nostr (Walker): https://primal.net/walker • 🎙️ Nostr Podcast: https://primal.net/titcoin • 🐦 X: https://x.com/walkeramerica | https://x.com/titcoinpodcast • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/titcoinpodcast/ • 🌐 Website: https://bitcoinpodcast.net/