Trump Liberates Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht: ‘Two Life Sentences Without Parole, Ridiculous!’

President Donald Trump has issued a full and unconditional pardon for Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the infamous dark web marketplace Silk Road.

Operating under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts,” Ulbricht ran Silk Road from 2011 to 2013, facilitating the sale of illicit goods on an unprecedented scale. After his arrest in 2013, Ulbricht was sentenced to two life sentences plus 40 years in prison without parole.

It appears Trump has a soft spot for Ulbricht, reportedly calling his mother to share the news. “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,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “He was given two life sentences, plus 40 years. Ridiculous!”

SiliconAngle report: Texas-born, highly-educated Ulbricht, who was something of a libertarian, was said to have had close to a million registered users when his site was taken down. However, it’s not certain how many of them were active on the site.

At his trial, prosecutors said his marketplace had sold over $200 million worth of drugs, leading to charges of conspiracy to commit drug trafficking, money laundering, and computer hacking. “Make no mistake: Ulbricht was a drug dealer and criminal profiteer who exploited people’s addictions and contributed to the deaths of at least six young people,” said Attorney Preet Bharara.

District Judge Katherine Forrest told the court Ulbricht was “no better a person than any other drug dealer,” although his sentence has been viewed as extremely punitive by a certain crowd, especially crypto fans with a libertarian bent.

“I wanted to empower people to make choices in their lives and have privacy and anonymity,” Ulbricht said at his sentencing, which gained him sympathy from the libertarian movement, prone to express concern about government overreach.

In 2021, while incarcerated, he said Silk Road had turned into something he hadn’t planned. “I was trying to help us move toward a freer and more equitable world,” he said, adding, “hell is paved with good intentions, and now here I am. I’m in hell.”

Following the pardon, he expressed his gratitude, writing on X, “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. After 11 years in prison, it is hard to express how I feel at this moment.”