Donald Trump pardons Silk Road dark web drug marketplace creator Ross Ulbricht
Members of the Libertarian Party stand in chairs while chanting and demanding the release of Ross Ulbricht during the party’s national convention at the Washington Hilton on May 25, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Getty)
Donald Trump has signed a full and unconditional pardon for Ross Ulbricht, the creator of online drug marketplace Silk Road.
Trump offered a pardon to dark-web market creator Ross Ulbricht on Tuesday (21 January), the first full day of his second presidential term, the BBC reported.
Ulbricht was found guilty on a number of charges in New York in 2015, including conspiracy to commit money laundering and distributing narcotics. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He was ordered to forfeit $183.9m (close to £150m today).
Preet Bharara, US attorney for the Southern District of New York said at the time: “Ulbricht was a drug dealer and criminal profiteer who exploited people’s addictions and contributed to the deaths of at least six young people,” Sky News reported.
Here’s all you need to know about Ross Ulbricht and Silk Road.
What was the dark web’s Silk Road?
Silk Road was a marketplace hidden on the dark web which facilitated the sale of drugs and other illegal products and services. Users had to conduct all transactions using Bitcoin. The dark web is a hidden part of the internet that’s only accessible with special software.
According to The Guardian, around 70 per cent of products sold were illegal drugs, along with “erotica, books and fake IDs. Child pornography, stolen credit cards and weapons of any sort were not allowed to be sold on the marketplace, with its terms of service reportedly banning “anything whose purpose is to harm or defraud.”
Six deaths were connected to drugs sold on the site.
Ulbricht created and operated Silk Road from 2011 until his arrest by the FBI in 2013.
In 2015, he was convicted of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, distributing narcotics, distributing narcotics by means of the internet, conspiracy to distribute narcotics, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to traffic fraudulent identity documents and conspiracy to commit computer hacking.
Why has Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht?
Trump pledged to release Ulbricht in the run-up to the presidential election, with Bloomberg reporting that pardoning the Silk Road creator was an “easy opportunity for Trump to curry favour with the crypto industry and libertarian voters”. Ulbricht identified as a libertarian.
According to CBS News, libertarians “generally oppose criminal drug policies” and “have long believed that government investigators overreached in building their case against Silk Road.”
Trump told a crowd at the Libertarian Party convention in May 2024: “If you vote for me, on day one I will commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht. He’s already served 11 years, we’re gonna get him home.”
The president wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday (21 January) that he had pardoned Ulbricht in “honour of… the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly”, adding: “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. He was given two life sentences, plus 40 years. Ridiculous.”
Last night, Donald Trump pledged to commute my sentence on day 1, if reelected. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
— Ross Ulbricht (@RealRossU) May 26, 2024
After 11 years in prison, it is hard to express how I feel at this moment. It is thanks to your undying support that I may get a second chance.
Who else has Trump freed?
On Monday (20 January), immediately after taking office, Trump granted clemency to every defendant charged, convicted or sentenced for their participation in the Capitol riots on 6 January 2021. Some sources put the number of people set to be released at more than 1,500.
Trump commuted the sentences of 14 people by name, including members of the far-right Proud Boys, and gave “a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of offences related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol, according to NBC News.
Among the most prominent to be released was former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who had been sentenced to 22 years in prison, and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who had been jailed for 18 years. Both had their sentences for seditious conspiracy commuted by the president. Neither had entered the Capitol Building during the riot.
It’s also been reported that Trump has ordered the Justice Department to dismiss all pending indictments related to the attempted insurrection.
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