In doing so, the president fulfills a campaign promise to the libertarian movement.
President Donald Trump has issued a pardon for Ross Ulbricht, the founder of an underground online marketplace called Silk Road that was designed to let people anonymously buy and sell various unlawful goods and services.
Trump said in a Jan. 21 post on Truth Social that he had granted Ulbricht a pardon, fulfilling a campaign pledge he made during a speech at the Libertarian Party National Convention in May 2024 to free Ulbricht from life in prison.
“I just called the mother of Ross William Ulbricht to let her know that in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly, it was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son, Ross,” Trump wrote.
Trump said that people who had worked for Ulbricht’s conviction were the same as those “involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me.”
Trump has alleged that the Department of Justice (DOJ) was weaponized against him in a bid to thwart his 2024 presidential comeback bid.
Former Attorney General Merrick Garland has denied such claims, insisting that the agency that he led during the Biden administration was impartial and that any prosecutorial decisions were made in line with the law.
Ulbricht, who was known in online communities as “Dread Pirate Roberts,” was in 2015 sentenced to life behind bars for creating and operating Silk Road, which the DOJ said was used by over 100,000 users to buy and sell more than $200 million worth of illegal goods and services. These included drugs, pirated media content, as well as a bevy of hacking services like breaking into social media accounts and offers to forge identification documents like fake driver’s licenses and passports.
“Make no mistake: Ulbricht was a drug dealer and criminal profiteer who exploited people’s addictions and contributed to the deaths of at least six young people,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement at the time Ulbricht’s sentencing was announced.
“Ulbricht went from hiding his cybercrime identity to becoming the face of cybercrime and as today’s sentence proves, no one is above the law.”
By Tom Ozimek
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