THE Bitcoin Podcast

Why President Trump Should PARDON SAMOURAI | Keonne Rodriguez of Samourai Wallet

6 snips
Dec 12, 2025
Guest
Keonne Rodriguez
Keonne Rodriguez, co-founder of Samourai Wallet, shares his harrowing journey after a militarized FBI raid in April 2024 led to serious charges against him and his partner. He explains the intentions behind Samourai's non-custodial wallet design and criticizes the government's legal overreach affecting privacy-focused developers. Keonne details the pressures of plea deals and highlights the unfair treatment of code creators versus big banks. With a looming prison sentence, he appeals for a pardon from President Trump, arguing against the overreach of the DOJ.
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ADVICE

Get The Case In Front Of Decision-Makers

  • If you can contact people with access to the Trump administration, Keonne and Walker urge you to do so to raise awareness for a potential pardon.
  • Share their story, petition, and donation links to get the case in front of decision-makers.
ANECDOTE

Origin Story: Building Samurai For Privacy

  • Keonne describes discovering Bitcoin in 2012 and building Samurai from a desire for censorship-resistant digital cash.
  • He and Bill left blockchain.info to make privacy-focused, non-custodial tools after seeing protocol-level privacy would not be provided.
ANECDOTE

Militarized Raid Despite No Warning

  • Keonne recounts the April 24, 2024 raid with 50 armed FBI agents, armored vehicles, drones, and simultaneous seizures of servers.
  • He emphasizes there was no prior contact from law enforcement and they could have been asked to self-surrender.
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