Trump pardons Silk Road operator Ross Ulbricht

On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump granted pardon to Ross Ulbricht, who ran the dark web marketplace Silk Road under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts.” Ulbricht has been serving a life sentence without parole since 2015 when he was convicted on several charges, including drug distribution.

The Silk Road marketplace, which was only accessible via the Tor network, became one of the most widespread and early commercial uses of Bitcoin. Buyers and sellers traded illegal drugs, counterfeit passports and more.

Meanwhile, Ulbricht has become a household name among certain sectors of the right, particularly the crypto crowd that embraced Trump last year. For his supporters, Ulbricht’s life sentence is unusually punitive. Similar crimes have resulted in much more lenient sentences. For example, Blake Benthall, who ran Silk Road 2.0, was sentenced to prison and three years of probation. Ulbricht’s lieutenant Thomas Clark, also known as ‘Variety Jones’, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year.

Although the criminal offenses were non-violent in nature, the judge who sentenced Ulbricht took into account the multiple deaths caused by drugs purchased through the Silk Road.

Throughout the trial, Ulbricht denied that he committed the crime in question. Because law enforcement arrested him with his laptop open, they had access to all of his files, including the website’s code, private messages between him and Silk Road employees, and a diary that contained entries matching OKCupid messages linked to Ross. I could do it. Ulbricht’s identity.