Todd Blanche interim AG and crypto enforcement memo: Appointment and overview
Todd Blanche was named interim U.S. Attorney General by President Donald Trump after the removal of Pam Bondi. As deputy attorney general, Blanche ordered the disbanding of the Justice Department’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team and signed a four‑page memo instructing prosecutors not to pursue regulatory‑violation cases in the cryptocurrency industry. The memo was connected to the Southern District of New York’s case against Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm.
DOJ crypto enforcement memo: connection to the Tornado Cash case
The enforcement memo authored by Todd Blanche was connected to the Southern District of New York’s prosecution of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm, and its application in that matter led to the dropping of a charge against Storm. The memo’s role in the case is described in reporting that links the directive to prosecutorial decisions in the SDNY litigation. After the charge was dropped in response to the memo’s directives, Roman Storm was later convicted on a different charge in the same overall case. The sequence of events ties the memo directly to at least one altered charging decision in the Tornado Cash proceedings.
The effect of the memo on the Storm case illustrates a concrete prosecutorial outcome tied to the directive described in reporting about the Justice Department action. The dropped charge and the subsequent separate conviction for Storm are both part of the public record about how the memo intersected with the SDNY prosecution. These events show a change in charging outcomes within the same litigation.
Blanche’s ethics disclosure dated July 10, 2025 shows that he transferred a set of cryptocurrency assets to his children and a grandchild. The disclosure lists Bitcoin (BTC) 66,605.25; Solana (SOL); ADA 0.2398; Ethereum (ETH); Polygon (MATIC); DOT 1.2354; Quant (QNT); and Coinbase stock. The transfers are recorded on the July 10, 2025 filing.
Reporting by ProPublica found that Blanche still held those cryptocurrency assets when he signed the enforcement memo, with the retained holdings valued between $159,000 and $485,000. That reporting states the retained positions were present at the time of the memo’s signing and frames the situation as raising potential violations of ethics rules. The same reporting notes concerns about Blanche’s prior pledge to divest before engaging in crypto-related matters.
The disclosure and the subsequent reporting together prompted ethics questions about Blanche’s financial ties to cryptocurrency while involved in related Justice Department decisions. Those developments are part of the public record on Blanche’s financial disclosures and the reporting that followed.
Todd Blanche was named interim U.S. Attorney General, and his four‑page enforcement memo prompted changes in prosecutorial handling of cryptocurrency matters, including an altered charging decision in the Southern District of New York’s Tornado Cash prosecution. His July 10, 2025 ethics disclosure and reporting that he retained crypto holdings when signing the memo have raised questions about potential ethics violations tied to his involvement in crypto enforcement.
