Trump frees Ross Ulbricht, slams justice system

Ross Ulbricht, founder of the darknet marketplace Silk Road, received a full pardon from President Trump, honoring the support of libertarians during his campaign.

Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Roadwas fully pardoned by the President Donald Trump. On January 22, Trump announced his pardon on Truth Social, his own social media platform, stating that “in honor of the libertarian movement”, which supported his victory in the 47th US presidential election, he had granted his freedom in Ulbricht.

Trump also criticized the justice system, calling those who convicted Ross Ulbricht “crazy” and calling his sentence of life plus 40 years “ridiculous.” Ulbricht was sentenced to life without parole for his role in the creation and operation of the Silk Road.

Launched in 2011, Silk Road was a darknet marketplace that operated until 2013 and became infamous as the “eBay of drugs.” He facilitated anonymous transactions of illegal goods and services, primarily drugs, using Bitcoin (BTC).

At the time, Bitcoin was relatively unknown outside of niche computing circles, and Silk Road played a key role in raising public awareness of the cryptocurrency.

In February 2015, Ross Ulbricht, the creator of Silk Road, was convicted of exploiting the platform. He was sentenced to two life terms in prison for facilitating illegal drug transactions worth nearly $183 million.

Silk Road was shut down by the FBI in October 2013, following a complex investigation involving cybercrime experts and undercover agents. Key to the takedown was the identification of Ross Ulbricht, who used the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts.”

Authorities were able to track Ulbricht through his online activities, including errors in Silk Road threads and the use of an email address linked to his real identity.

The breakthrough came when investigators gained access to Silk Road’s servers, which contained a vast array of evidence, including transaction logs and private messages involving Ulbricht. He was arrested at a public library in San Francisco, where FBI agents caught him accessing the platform’s main server.

While Ulbricht admitted to building Silk Road, he claimed that at the time of his arrest he had ceded control of the site and was just a “knockout guy” who took responsibility after being discovered .