Trump Pardons Silk Road Operator Ross Ulbricht

On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump issued a pardon to Ross Ulbricht, who ran nan acheronian web marketplace Silk Road nether nan pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts.” Ulbricht has been serving a life condemnation without parole since 2015, erstwhile he was convicted of aggregate charges, including nan distribution of narcotics.

The Silk Road marketplace, which was only accessible done nan Tor network, became 1 of nan astir prevalent early commercialized uses of Bitcoin. Buyers and sellers traded successful illicit drugs, forged passports, and more.

In nan intervening years, Ulbricht became a root celebrè for a definite conception of nan right-wing, peculiarly successful nan crypto crowd that embraced Trump past year. To his supporters, Ulbricht’s life condemnation is unusually punitive. Similar offenses personification garnered overmuch overmuch lenient sentences — for instance, Blake Benthall, who operated Silk Road 2.0, was sentenced to clip served and 3 years of probation. Ulbricht’s lieutenant, Thomas Clark, too known arsenic “Variety Jones,” was sentenced to 20 years successful business past year.

Although nan criminal offenses were nonviolent successful nature, nan judge who sentenced Ulbricht took into narration aggregate deaths attributable to narcotics bought done nan Silk Road.

Throughout his trial, Ulbricht denied that he had committed nan crimes astatine issue. Because norm enforcement had arrested him pinch his laptop open, they had entree to each his files, which included nan codification of nan website, backstage messages betwixt him and labour of nan Silk Road, and a diary whose entries corresponded to OKCupid messages tied to Ross Ulbricht’s existent identity.