Trump Pardons Ross Ulbricht, Owner of Silk Road

Dismas · 01-22-2025, 06:25 PM

With respect to the Libertarian movement, Trump recently pardoned Ross Ulbricht. Ross was serving over two life sentences for operating Silk Road. Since he was minimally involved with transactions, his sentence was considered one of the most excessive applied to a neutral party. Originally he was offered 10 years as a plea deal, which he declined. He ended up serving more than 10 years of his sentence.

I recall when Ross was arrested in 2013, during the early days of the forum. There were many instances where he spoke from prison, sharing his conditions and experience. Glad to see he will be free and able to see his family again.

Quote:US President Donald Trump says he has signed a full and unconditional pardon for Ross Ulbricht, who operated Silk Road, the dark web marketplace where illegal drugs were sold.

Ulbricht was convicted in 2015 in New York in a narcotics and money-laundering conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison.

Trump championed Ulbricht's cause, joining libertarians who said the conviction was an example of government overreach. On Tuesday, he said he had called Ulbricht's mother to inform her that he had granted a pardon to her son.

Silk Road, which was shut down in 2013 after police arrested Ulbricht, sold illegal drugs using Bitcoin, as well as hacking equipment and stolen passports.

Ulbricht was found guilty of charges including conspiracy to commit drug trafficking, money laundering and computer hacking.

During his trial, prosecutors said Ulbricht's website, hosted on the hidden "dark web", sold more than $200m (£131m) worth of drugs anonymously.

Prosecutors said he also solicited six murders-for-hire, including one against a former Silk Road employee, though they said no evidence existed that any killings were actually carried out.

"The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponisation of government against me," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site on Tuesday. "He was given two life sentences, plus 40 years. Ridiculous!"

Read More: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz7e0jve875o

Dismas · 01-22-2025, 08:39 PM

Here's a speech he gave at a BTC conference back in 2021:

hypakrit · 01-24-2025, 10:14 AM

thats fucking lit lets go

Spore · 01-24-2025, 04:33 PM

Pretty big deal, with 11 years gone I'm sure he had some time to really think about things, and what to do with whatever crypto he managed to stash away.
I'm glad he got out, he is probably going through so many emotions right now.

He recently made a statement on x here: https://x.com/RealRossU/status/1882609887878029519

Dismas · 01-24-2025, 07:50 PM

(01-24-2025, 04:33 PM)Spore Wrote: Pretty big deal, with 11 years gone I'm sure he had some time to really think about things, and what to do with whatever crypto he managed to stash away.
I'm glad he got out, he is probably going through so many emotions right now.

He recently made a statement on x here: https://x.com/RealRossU/status/1882609887878029519

He looks so much older and mature now. It's crazy to think he was arrested when he was just under 30 and he's 40 now.

Hopefully he did actually stash some away, because the feds seized what the site had.