President Donald Trump followed through on another campaign promise Tuesday, Jan. 21, when he pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. The 40-year-old was serving two life sentences plus 40 years without parole for his ties to the infamous dark web marketplace.
In a post on his social media site, Truth Social, Trump said he spoke with Ulbricht’s mother and told her that her son’s full and unconditional pardon was “in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly.”
Trump added, “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.”
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In his 2015 conviction, the court held Ulbricht liable for $183 million in sales of illegal drugs –– including heroin, cocaine and opioids –– as well as counterfeit IDs that occurred on his site.
The move comes shortly after Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., wrote a letter to Trump asking him to pardon Ulbricht.
“Our criminal justice system should protect society from violent lawbreakers instead of filling our prisons with nonviolent offenders like Mr. Ulbricht,” Paul wrote.
The pardon also realizes a promise Trump made while speaking to the Libertarian National Convention last May, when he pledged to commute Ulbricht’s sentence on his first day in office.
Silk Road was an early adopter of Bitcoin, and cryptocurrency advocates, as well as libertarian political voices such as Paul, have been vocal in pushing for a pardon for Ulbricht.
President Trump pardoned more than 1,500 people charged for their roles in the Jan. 6 insurrection on Inauguration Day. Ulbricht’s pardon came on Trump’s second day in office.
