★ Private Action
Roger Ver hires Trump-tied Kise to lobby DOJ on tax prosecution
Crypto DeregulationDOJ Political InterferenceWhite-Collar Enforcement Erosion
Filed January 2025
★ The Brief
Who enabled it
Who benefits
Roger Ver, a cryptocurrency billionaire indicted for approximately $50 million in tax evasion and fighting extradition from Spain, added Christopher Kise to his defense team. Kise, a former personal attorney to Donald Trump and close colleague of Trump DOJ appointees Todd Blanche and Ketan Bhirud, leveraged his relationships to secure meetings with Bhirud that excluded the career prosecutors most familiar with the case. Over the course of 2025, Kise lobbied Blanche and Bhirud to abandon the criminal prosecution, wearing down their zeal for pursuing Ver on criminal charges over the course of several months.
Actors
Who pushed it · 1Who initiated, paid, or pushed the action.
- Chris Kise
Leveraged personal relationships with DOJ Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and Associate Deputy AG Ketan Bhirud — both former Trump co-counsel — to secure meetings cutting out career prosecutors and lobby for abandonment of the criminal tax case against Ver.
Beneficiaries
Who gained · 1Who stood to gain.
Roger VerHired Kise specifically to exploit his DOJ connections; stood to benefit from the collapse of an eight-year criminal tax prosecution that could have resulted in prison.
Further reading
- ★ Government ActionOctober 2025Trump DOJ drops Roger Ver tax case for $49.9M, no guilty plea
- ★ Private ActionDecember 2024Roger Ver pays Stone $600K to lobby against law in his prosecution
- ★ Government ActionApril 2025Trump's SEC pauses Gemini Trust enforcement lawsuit
- ★ Government ActionMay 2026DOJ settles Trump IRS suit with $1.8B anti-weaponization fund
- ★ Government ActionDecember 2025Trump pardons Tina Peters, Colorado clerk in stop-the-steal case
- ★ Government ActionOctober 2025Trump pardons Binance founder Changpeng Zhao after BSA conviction