Trump pardons Silk Road dark web market creator Ross Ulbricht

Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht gets Presidential pardon

News By Craig Hale published 22 January 2025

(Image credit: Getty Images)

• President Donald Trump has signed a “full and unconditional” pardon for Ross Ulbricht
• The Silk Road operator had received two life sentences and a further 40 years
• Trump said the same “lunatics” were behind the fight against him

President Trump has signed a “full and unconditional” pardon for Silk Road foudner and operator Ross Ulbricht.

Silk Road was a notorious dark web marketplace selling illegal drugs, hacking tools and stolen passports during its operation between 2011 and 2013.

Ulbricht, who has been in prison since 2015, was arrested in 2013 and later convicted in 2015 on charges of conspiracy to commit drug trafficking, money laundering and computer hacking. The result was two life sentences and a further 40 years without parole.

Trump pardons Silk Road operator

The President informed Ulbricht’s mother about the pardon via a phone call, he stated on TRUTH Social.

“I just called the mother of Ross William Ulbricht to let her know that in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly, it was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son, Ross," the post read.

Trump described the sentencing as “ridiculous,” adding the same “lunatics” who convicted Ulbricht were also involved in the “modern day weaponization of government against [himself].”

Silk Road was a dark web site accessible via the open source, decentralized Tor browser. It supported anonymized transactions via Bitcoin – something that he declared during his sentencing was important to his desire to “empower people to make choices in their lives and have privacy and anonymity.”

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