President Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the dark web marketplace Silk Road
The pardon reportedly fulfilled campaign promises Trump made while seeking support from the cryptocurrency industry, which allegedly spent over $100 million on the election
Ulbricht, age 40, had been serving a life sentence without parole since his 2015 conviction for narcotics distribution
Trump announced the pardon on Truth Social, criticizing the federal prosecutors involved in Ulbricht's case
The article provides background on Silk Road, noting it facilitated over 1.5 million transactions and generated approximately $200 million in revenue during its three years of operation
While prosecutors alleged Ulbricht had attempted to arrange murders of perceived threats, they acknowledged no evidence showed these killings occurred
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People who defend Ulbricht always claim that he shouldn't be in prison for starting a website, but even putting aside what was taking place on that website, didn't he also try to hire a hitman to kill someone who threatened to reveal what he was doing?
@OpulentPunditUnity1yr1Y
That was a bust allegation. It was later dropped.
Some of the biggest drug sellers on his platform got 5-10y sentences, many are walking free, while Ross got 2x life sentences + 40 years. As Trump said, it was ridiculous.
@QuokkaRonnieUnity1yr1Y
Never convicted of the hitman stuff. It was found during his trial by a preponderance of the evidence that he did pay people to kill. I don’t really get the free ross movement. He was probably over sentenced. But he’s not some innocent victim.
@7Y8765ZLibertarian1yr1Y
That was alleged but never proven. He should have been sentenced based on the crimes he was convicted of & got like 15-20 years imo.
While I think Ross Ulbricht's sentence was excessive, the guy created a website for use in international drug trafficking and even hired a dark web hitman to kill someone he was feuding with online. Of all the worthy cases, why this **** ?
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