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Tuesday evening, President Donald Trump He issued a pardon To Ross Ulbricht, who ran the dark web marketplace Silk Road under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts.” Ulbricht has been serving a life sentence without parole since 2015, when he was convicted on multiple charges, including Drug distribution.
The Silk Road market, accessible only through the Tor network, became one of the most widespread early commercial uses of Bitcoin. Buyers and sellers were trading illegal drugs, fake passports, and more.
In the years since, Ulbricht has become a cause célèbre for a certain segment of the right, particularly in the cryptocurrency crowd that… She embraced Trump last year. To his supporters, Ulbricht’s life sentence is unusually punitive. Similar crimes have received more lenient sentences – for example, Blake Benthallwho operated Silk Road 2.0, was sentenced to time served and three years of probation. lieutenant Ulbricht, Thomas Clarkalso known as “Variety Jones,” was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year.
Although the criminal offenses were non-violent in nature, the judge who sentenced Ulbricht took into account multiple deaths attributed to drugs purchased via the Silk Road.
Throughout his trial, Ulbricht denied that he committed the crimes in question. Because law enforcement arrested him and had his laptop open, they had access to all of his files, which included the website code, private messages between him and Silk Road employees, and note whose entries match OKCupid messages associated with Ross Ulbricht’s real identity.
