Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he has pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, an underground website for selling illegal drugs and other contraband goods like hacking equipment and stolen passports.
Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison in 2015 after a high-profile prosecution that highlighted the role of the internet in black markets and ended with him being convicted on seven counts, including conspiracy and money laundering.
The president posted on his Truth Social platform that he had spoken to Ulbricht’s mother on his first full day in office at the White House to deliver the news.
“It was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son, Ross,” he wrote.
“The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me.”
Trump called Ulbricht’s prison sentence “ridiculous”.
Ulbrict created Silk Road in 2011 under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts”, a reference to Rob Reiner’s popular fantasy film The Princess Bride (1987), and ran it for two years on the dark web, its services available anywhere in the world and typically accessed via an anonymity-protecting Tor browser, until it was shut down by the authorities.
Prosecutors at Ubricht’s trial said more than $200m in drug deals had taken place on his site and alleged that he had also solicited six murders-for-hire, including one against a former Silk Road employee, although they said they had found no evidence that any of the killings were actually carried out.
Transactions on the platform were made using bitcoin, with Ulbricht hailed in some quarters as a pioneer in the use of cryptocurrency, according to The Washington Post.
Brandon Sample, Ulrbicht’s lawyer, told the Post, Ulbricht and his family were “deeply and eternally grateful” to the commander-in-chief, calling the pardon an “extraordinary act of grace”.
“This decision offers Ross the opportunity to begin anew, to rebuild his life, and to contribute positively to society,” he said.
Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the website Silk Road, in a photograph presented as an exhibit during his 2015 criminal trial in New York federal court (US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York/Reuters)
Ulbricht has been serving time in federal prison in Arizona since his conviction and it is not immediately clear when he will be released.
Trump had promised to help Ulbricht during the speech he gave to the Libertarian Party National Convention last May.
Libertarian activists, who generally oppose criminal drug policies, have long believed that government investigators overreached in building their case against Silk Road.
Many held up “Free Ross” signs at that event.
“Ross Ulbricht has been a libertarian political prisoner for more than a decade,” said a statement from Libertarian National Committee Chair Angela McArdle in response to his release.
“I’m proud to say that saving his life has been one of our top priorities and that has finally paid off.”
Trump has been eagerly using his pardon power since beginning his second term.
On Monday, hours after taking office, he also wiped clean the records of roughly 1,500 people who participated in the January 6 2021 riot at the US Capitol.
The decision, which applied to some people who were convicted of attacking police, upended the Justice Department’s sweeping investigation into the attack.
Additional reporting by agencies.
