Trump pardons Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht
President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he had pardoned Ross UlbrichtFounder of Silk Road, FBI’s former underground website called “The most sophisticated and widespread criminal marketplace on the Internet.”
Ulbricht’s stuff sentenced He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2015.
Trump posted on his social media site, Truth Social, that he spoke with Ulbricht’s mother on his first day in office.
“I am pleased to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon for her son Ross,” he wrote. “The same scumbags who worked to convict him are the same lunatics who participated in the weaponization of modern government against me.”
Trump called Ulbricht’s incarceration “ridiculous.”
He promised to help Ulbricht during speech at the Liberal Party’s national convention last May.
Liberal activists who are generally opposed to drug-criminal policies have long argued that government investigators went too far in building the case against Silk Road. Many held signs that read “Free Ross.”
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The Silk Road website was built by Ulbricht in 2011 on the dark web, a part of the internet inaccessible to traditional search engines. It does not accept cash or credit cards; users must pay using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. All transactions are encrypted and therefore cannot be traced.
It became a place where people bought and sold illegal drugs, weapons, poisons and services such as computer hacking.
“Silk Road was the Amazon of drug sites,” former FBI agent Milan Patel said in the interview cbs news series “FBI Declassified.”
Ulbricht ran the site until his arrest in 2013. detained By the FBI. During the trial, prosecutors said at least six people had died from overdoses on drugs purchased on Silk Road. They claim Ulbricht collected $18 million in commissions on tens of thousands of drug sales, and present evidence Claiming he tried to kill those who threatened his business.
Since Mr. Trump took office, Also pardoned About 1,500 defendants have been convicted in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.
