These allegations of murders-for-hire, the truth is, dissuaded the primary Trump administration from granting clemency to Ulbricht. The White Home in 2020 thought of releasing Ulbricht however in the end rejected the concept due to the alleged position of violence within the case, in response to one former authorities official concerned within the course of who spoke to WIRED on situation of anonymity.
Since then, nonetheless, the Trump administration has shifted its stance on Ulbricht’s case—partially, maybe, as a consequence of its embrace of the libertarian cryptocurrency group, for whom Ulbricht has change into a martyr and trigger célèbre. On the Libertarian Nationwide Conference in Washington, DC, final Could, then presidential candidate Trump promised to commute Ulbricht’s sentence “on day one” if reelected. (Finally, day one handed with no clemency for Ulbricht, whilst Trump pardoned more than a thousand participants within the January 6, 2021, rebellion on the US Capitol, although Trump ally Elon Musk promised in a post to X on Monday night that “Ross shall be freed too.”)
Simply what position Ulbricht will play within the free world is much from clear. Even in his assertion to the choose at his sentencing listening to in 2015, Ulbricht by no means totally acknowledged the hurt inflicted by the Silk Highway’s drug gross sales. And in response to Jared Der-Yeghiayan, a former Homeland Safety Investigations agent who infiltrated the Silk Highway through the investigation, Ulbricht nonetheless exhibits little regret for his actions in his public posts to X.
“The concept of him being launched doesn’t hassle me within the least,” says Der-Yeghiayan, who now works as the pinnacle of strategic intelligence at cryptocurrency tracing agency Chainalysis. “I do get bothered if there’s now a notion that he did nothing fallacious; that doesn’t acknowledge the info of the case.”
Amongst some advocates of prison justice reform, nonetheless, Ulbricht has change into an exemplar of oversentencing, significantly provided that he was technically charged with nonviolent crimes. “Ross has served greater than sufficient time. He has been a mannequin prisoner. He’s a first-time, nonviolent offender. He poses zero security threat to the group,” Alice Johnson, CEO of the justice reform basis Taking Motion for Good, informed WIRED in November. Johnson spent 20 years in jail herself for tried possession with intent to distribute earlier than Trump commuted her life sentence in 2018 and pardoned her in 2020. “I consider that Ross’ case goes to pave the way in which for a lot of others who’ve been unjustly given these draconian sentences to come back residence.”
On Tuesday evening, Ulbricht’s supporters celebrated his freedom and voiced their gratitude to Trump for his clemency. “Phrases can not specific how grateful we’re,” reads a tweet from @Free_Ross, an X account dedicated to the greater than decade-long effort on Ulbricht’s behalf. “President Trump is a person of his phrase and he simply saved Ross’s life. ROSS IS A FREE MAN!!!!!”
Extra reporting by Joel Khalili
