Trump Pardons Ross Ulbricht, Founder of ‘Silk Road’ Online Bazaar for Illicit Goods

Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the website Silk Road, appears in an undated photograph made from his computer and presented as an exhibit during his 2015 criminal trial in New York federal court. U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York/Handout via REUTERS)

President Donald Trump has issued a pardon for Ross Ulbricht, the founder of an underground online marketplace called Silk Road that was designed to let people anonymously buy and sell various unlawful goods and services.

Trump said in a Jan. 21 post on Truth Social that he had granted Ulbricht a pardon, fulfilling a campaign pledge he made during a speech at the Libertarian Party National Convention in May 2024 to free Ulbricht from life in prison.

“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,” Trump wrote.

Trump said that people who had worked for Ulbricht’s conviction were the same as those “involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me.”

Trump has alleged that the Department of Justice (DOJ) was weaponized against him in a bid to thwart his 2024 presidential comeback bid.

Former Attorney General Merrick Garland has denied such claims, insisting that the agency that he led during the Biden administration was impartial and that any prosecutorial decisions were made in line with the law.

Ulbricht, who was known in online communities as “Dread Pirate Roberts,” was in 2015 sentenced to life behind bars for creating and operating Silk Road, which the DOJ said was used by over 100,000 users to buy and sell more than $200 million worth of illegal goods and services. These included drugs, pirated media content, as well as a bevy of hacking services like breaking into social media accounts and offers to forge identification documents like fake driver’s licenses and passports.

“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,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement at the time Ulbricht’s sentencing was announced.

“Ulbricht went from hiding his cybercrime identity to becoming the face of cybercrime and as today’s sentence proves, no one is above the law.”

The DOJ said that Ulbricht oversaw all Silk Road operations, including a staff of administrators and programmers, and earned over $13 million in commissions from illegal sales.

He also allegedly solicited six murders-for-hire to protect the enterprise and maintain user anonymity, though the DOJ said no evidence suggests these murders were actually carried out.

Ulbricht was sentenced to a double life sentence without parole after being convicted on seven offenses, including distributing narcotics by means of the Internet, conspiring to distribute narcotics, engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, conspiring to commit computer hacking, conspiring to traffic in false identity documents, and conspiring to commit money laundering.

He has spent a decade or so in prison since being convicted.

Libertarians Rally

His cause was championed by the libertarian community, who argued that his punishment was unjustified given that Silk Road was a platform “founded on voluntary interaction and the principles of liberty” and that his crimes were nonviolent.

Trump spoke at the Libertarian National Convention in Washington in May, where he promised to commute Ulbricth’s sentence to time served. “On day one I will commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht,” Trump said, drawing audience chants of “Free Ross!”

In his post announcing Ulbricht’s pardon, Trump called the sentence “ridiculous.”

Trump’s decision to pardon the Silk Road founder was praised by the Libertarian Party, which expressed hope that Ulbricht’s pardon would be just one step in a broader plan to bring justice to politically persecuted individuals.

“Ross Ulbricht has been a libertarian political prisoner for more than a decade. I’m proud to say that saving his life has been one of our top priorities and that has finally paid off,” Libertarian National Committee Chair Angela McArdle said in a statement. “Ross, congratulations to you and your family. God bless you and keep you safe in your new found freedom.”