Posted on 12/18/2020 10:58:59 AM PST by RandFan
In his final weeks in office before Joe Biden’s inauguration, President Donald Trump is weighing granting clemency to Ross Ulbricht, the founder and former administrator of the world’s most famous darknet drug market, Silk Road, The Daily Beast has learned.
According to three people familiar with the matter, the White House counsel’s office has had documents related to Ulbricht’s case under review, and Trump was recently made aware of the situation and the pleas of the Silk Road founder’s allies. Two of these sources say the president has at times privately expressed some sympathy for Ulbricht’s situation and has been considering his name, among others, for his next round of commutations and pardons before the Jan. 20 inauguration of his 2020 Democratic opponent.
It is unclear if Trump has arrived at a final decision yet, but Ulbricht has gained some influential backers in the president’s political and social orbit. Behind the scenes, he has the support of some presidential advisers, as well as criminal justice reform advocates with close ties to the administration and Trump family, including Alice Johnson, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
“I’ve had documents forwarded to my contacts in the White House as early as February,” activist Weldon Angelos, a former music producer and ex-federal inmate, said in a brief interview on Tuesday evening. “In the beginning of the year, [Ulbricht’s] family had reached out to us for our support, and my organization and I have endorsed his full commutation, and I am hopeful that President Trump will commute his sentence in its entirety. This case has perhaps more support than I’ve seen in any case of this kind.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on this story Tuesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
Do it...
“In his final weeks in office before Joe Biden’s inauguration, “
There will be no Biden inauguration. Nobody knows this better than still senator Harris.
...still senator Harris.
The guy should have gotten some time—not so much for the Silk Road itself—but, as I understand it, he was soliciting injury to one of his rivals.
However, life seemed a bit harsh.
Silk Road? This may be above my pay grade.
I have a little studying up to do.
“My Team” will be back.
Guy set up a virtual store for illegal things. No problems with him being locked up for life.
There is a good article in Vanity Fair by Nick Bilton, who attended the trial.
He did cause some deaths with his drugs and poison smuggling. Some government agents involved with him went to jail.
The sentence may seem harsh but the article does explain why. He was offered, and declined, a plea deal that would have been appropriate. If Trump grants clemency he should also grant clemency to the black kid that was sentenced during the lunch break of the trial.
Thanks, Hamilton-J.
“The government also accused Ulbricht of paying for the murders of at least five people, but there is no evidence that the murders were actually carried out, and the accusations never became formal charges against Ulbricht.[48][49]”
- Wiki
Apparently, not enough evidence to charge and convict...
This sounds like a Trump leak to control the media focus...
This probably just means somebody put him on a list of candidates for Trump to look at.
He ought to pardon everyone. If they are not going to prosecute double voting, election fraud, violent protesters, and anybody at the FBI, let them all go. At this point, if Biden wins, what difference does it make?
This is more an indictment of our plea-bargain system which all too often is designed to discourage jury trials by offering a bitter but short prison term in exchange for pleading guilty while dangling draconian life sentences if you risk a trial. That's not justice. That's a mafia-style "offer you can't refuse."
I think the Treasury Department is still sitting on a pile of bitcoins they seized from his computer when they arrested him. If he gets pardoned does he get his bitcoins back?
Good point. Even they admit in the article they dont know if Trump has made a decision but for his family etc. it offers some hope.
Personally think this was one of the most unlikeliest pardons (or commutations) considering Snowden and Assange may have arguably stronger cases.
No he won’t get any of the Bitcoin, feds will keep it!
Rat State big city Mayor’s, prosecuting attorneys and AG’s have been pardoning filthy, violent, and amoral rioters (young Democrats) without hardly any mention.
Here’s an article that sort of explains it, an estimated 614,000 were estimated to be in digital wallet of Ross Ulbricht when he was arrested, the Government seized about 174,000 of them and recently sold them for around 48 million dollars, the remaining 440,000 bitcoins valued at nearly 6 billion dollars were recently moved into an unknown digital wallet.
The speculation is that someone somehow obtained the digital password either thru hacking it or somehow finding out from someone and basically stole them...
6 billion at today’s prices is not a bad day’s work. ...
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