Posted on 01/21/2025 6:18:39 PM PST by Morgana
President Donald Trump has granted an unconditional pardon to the creator of the notorious dark web page Silk Road in honor of the 'Libertarian Movement,' while slamming the 'scum' who prosecuted him.
Ross Ulbricht, 40, was arrested in 2013 because the dark website he founded facilitated the sale of illicit drugs using cryptocurrency.
In early 2015 he was sentenced to two life terms in prison plus 40 years for drug trafficking, conspiracy to commit money laundering and computer hacking, operating under the pseudonym 'Dread Pirate Roberts.'
'Make no mistake: Ulbricht was a drug dealer and criminal profiteer who exploited people’s addictions and contributed to the deaths of at least six young people,' Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said upon Ulbricht's sentencing.
On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to commute Ulbricht's sentence 'on day one' if he were re-elected, and garnered enormous support from the convicted criminal's loved ones and fans.
And while Ulbricht's clemency was not one of the many tasks Trump completed on Monday, the President revealed on Tuesday evening that Ulbricht had been granted a 'full and unconditional pardon.'
'I just called the mother of Ross William Ulbright (sic) to let her know that in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly, it was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son, Ross,' Trump revealed on TruthSocial.
'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 was given two life sentences, plus 40 years. Ridiculous!'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
This BIG News for Libertarians - they use to run spoiler candidates - probably won’t happen anymore
Trump got it right this time. He understood that there were never going to be enough voters if he just focused on the MAGA theme, he had to find other constituencies to build a winning electoral coalition.
And he won over people that four years ago, would have never even thought of voting for him....like Joe Rogan.
Now maybe we won’t like some of these things he does to appease that part of the coalition, but it’s a small price to pay to get the good things.
YES
2 life terms + 40 was a ridiculous sentence.
Maybe 20 years, even then he deserves the pardon
I have followed Ross for years. I have never ever thought he did nothing wrong. At the same time, I am thrilled he is free. I’m looking forward to the day I can talk about this with fellow Americans.
U.S. Attorney Howard stated that a plea deal with a mandatory minimum of 10 years was “discussed with Ulbricht at the final pretrial conference on December 17, 2014.
Was there ever proof that HE sold drugs to people? Or was it just that he ran the website that ALLOWED people to sell other people drugs, and the feds used that by extension to say that HE was selling drugs to people?
I think you nailed it!
Yours is an excellent take on it. I had felt some anger at this pardon. You explained it well.
He just created the forum to allow others to trade whatever they wanted. If that were the only issue I would be 100% behind pardoning him. Much, much more troublesome is the story that he (talking to feds) thought he was successfully ordering hits to kill people along the way. If that is true, I’m not sure he deserves any pardon at all.
The fbi found out his screen name and who he was and made fake accounts asking for money to kill somebody they made up . Claiming that they were killing somebody who was going to rat out customers that used the Silk Road. It was a total dry run for the governor whitmer kidnapping where there was no victim . They charged him for hiring hit men I believe , but it was all fake he was just stupid enough to go along with it and paid several hundred thousand in bitcoin to have the guy who didn’t even exist killed
What any person buys and/or consumes, from anywhere, from anyone, with any form of currency or valuables, is none of the government’s business.
“What any person buys and/or consumes, from anywhere, from anyone, with any form of currency or valuables, is none of the government’s business.“
Hunter Biden got a pardon for that.
My basic framework is that unless you can demonstrate how your actions (what you put in your body, who you love, what art you create or consume*, what means you own or carry for self-defense, and what you say) are none of the government’s business unless and until you deprive another person of life, liberty, or property (with the obvious exclusion of depriving them of live in self-defense, etc).
As with ‘free speech’ not including defamation of character, incitement to riot, etc;
Regards
*obviously art that involves harming others who can’t or don’t consent is not included in this, e.g. kiddie porn
OK. Good to know that you don’t include violence in that. I’m sorry for asking such an extreme question. I’ve just been dealing with some libs on Facebook and sometimes you have to challenge them with the logical extremes of their statements to see where they really fall. I carried that over to you and I shouldn’t have.
No, it’s fine.
It’s easy to forget that here on FR one is dealing with -by default - people who understand and respect the Constitution and common sense.
IMHO Libertarianism is a useful default in this sense: If the question begins “Should the government....” the default answer should be “NO” unless one can point to the Constitution saying, literally, otherwise.
Taken to extremes it quickly devolves into silliness, but I think the key point that unless and until I interfere with someone else’s life, liberty, or property, etc valid.
Regards.
Sounds like entrapment to me...
The supposed murder for hire scheme was never proven in court and the feds who presented it were proven to be corrupt (a rogue DEA agent and a rogue Secret Service agent).
Ross was charged with non-violent crimes, but sentenced for violent ones that he was never charged with.
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