Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht pardoned by Trump 10 years into life sentence

The self-declared "pro-crypto president" Donald Trump pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht on Tuesday.

Ulbricht, 40, was about 10 years into his life sentence for helming an online black market where drug dealers, money launderers, and traffickers used bitcoins to mask more than $214 million in illicit trades. (Ars thoroughly documented the Silk Road saga here.)

Trump had pledged at the Libertarian National Convention to set Ulbricht free while on the campaign trail, agreeing with supporters who believe that Ulbricht's long sentence was a harsh example of government overreach.

While Ulbricht had admitted to creating Silk Road and operating it under the alias "Dread Pirate Roberts," he maintained at trial that he relinquished control to others and was being set up as a "fall guy," Reuters reported.

When he was sentenced in 2015, he insisted that his goal in creating the underground market "was to empower people to make choices in their lives and have privacy and anonymity." Now-former US District Judge Katherine Forrest challenged that, noting at sentencing that Ulbricht had to "pay the consequences" because Silk Road's novel use of cryptocurrency to cover up widespread illicit trade was "unprecedented."

On Truth Social, Trump confirmed that he called Ulbricht's mother to let her know that her son's "full and unconditional" pardon was "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 wrote. "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!"

Brandon Sample, Ulbricht's clemency attorney, told Reuters that Ulbricht was expected to be released soon.

"After enduring over a decade of incarceration, this decision offers Ross the opportunity to begin anew, to rebuild his life, and to contribute positively to society," Sample said.

On X (formerly Twitter), a "Free_Ross" account with more than 55,000 followers celebrated the pardon in a post viewed 4.5 million times.

"Words cannot express how grateful we are," the "Free_Ross" account wrote. "President Trump is a man of his word and he just saved Ross's life. ROSS IS A FREE MAN!!!!!"

The Ulbricht family posted a statement on a linked "Free Ross" website, expressing "immense gratitude to President Trump for giving Ross a second chance and to all those who have supported us throughout the years. From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU!!!"