Trump Grants Pardon to Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht

In a significant move, President Donald Trump has signed a pardon for Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, a notorious online platform associated with illegal drug sales and other unlawful activities.

 

In a post on his Truth Social platform, President Trump revealed that he has granted a full and unconditional pardon to Ross Ulbricht, who gained notoriety for establishing Silk Road, a dark web marketplace where illegal substances were traded. Ulbricht was convicted in 2015 in New York on serious charges, including narcotics trafficking and money laundering, which led to him receiving two life sentences plus 40 years in prison.

Trump took the opportunity to inform Ulbricht's mother personally about the pardon, emphasizing his belief that Ulbricht's treatment by the legal system was unjust. "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," he asserted in his online statement, expressing his discontent over the lengthy sentence.

Silk Road facilitated the anonymous sale of illicit drugs and various illegal goods, amassed more than $200 million worth of transactions while operating in the shadows of the dark web. Hosted on the Tor network, a platform designed for anonymous browsing, Silk Road allowed users to evade law enforcement while conducting their transactions. Ulbricht operated the site under the pseudonym Dread Pirate Roberts, inspired by a character from the film The Princess Bride.

During his trial, prosecutors also claimed that Ulbricht had solicited six murders-for-hire, though there was no concrete evidence that any of these plots were executed. Judge Katherine Forrest, who sentenced Ulbricht, stated that he was "no better a person than any other drug dealer," reflecting the severity of the crimes associated with Silk Road.

Ulbricht had claimed that his intentions were to empower individuals by providing them with privacy and anonymity over the internet. The case drew significant attention from the Libertarian community, which has argued that government actions in Ulbricht's case represent a form of overreach. Following Trump's announcement, Republican congressman Thomas Massie hailed the decision, thanking the president for fulfilling his promise to advocates of Ulbricht's release.