President Trump made good on his promise to pardon Ross Ulbricht. This was a deal he made with libertarian supporters during his campaign. He had to keep this promise but it is always surprising when politicians keep their promises.
Ross Ulbricht was arrested by an FBI sting at a library in San Francisco in 2013 for running Silk Road, a Bitcoin marketplace where some but not all – people sold contraband. Federal prosecutors also accused him of plotting a murder but the victim himself has said that he doesn’t think that Ulbricht put a hit on him. The government’s case was…let’s just say not rock solid but CNN says he is “very dangerous.” Ulbricht’s lawyers say that he tried to make a plea deal but the government denies that. He was sentenced to TWO life sentences plus 40 years without the possibility of parole.
Convicted murderers and rapists get smaller sentences than that. Libertarians believe he was targeted for creating a Bitcoin marketplace that the U.S. government could not track or control.
So what is to become of him now? He is 40 years old and has been imprisoned for nearly a decade. While in prison, he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science through the Prison University Project.
He has been in contact with Representative Thomas Massie and in this letter, he says that he has been preparing to “help further the cause of freedom.”
