After spending more than a decade in prison, Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht says the president gave him an “amazing blessing.” (Credit: X /@RealRossU)
Ross Ulbricht, founder of the anonymous online marketplace Silk Road, thanked President Donald Trump for giving him a full and unconditional pardon. In a video posted online, a visibly emotional Ulbricht praised Trump for being a “man of his word,” and thanked the president for giving him the “amazing blessing” of freedom.
“I am so, so grateful to have my life back, to have my future back, to have this second chance,” Ulbricht says in the video. He also said the pardon was an “an important moment for everybody, everywhere, who loves freedom and who cares about second chances.”
People hold signs in support of jailed darknet market Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, as former President Trump attends the Libertarian Party’s national convention in Washington, D.C., May 25, 2024. (Reuters/Brian Snyder / Reuters)
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Trump announced on his social media platform Truth Social that he called Ulbricht’s mother to inform her of her son’s pardon. The president said it was done “in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly.”
“The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me,” Trump wrote.
In a recent appearance on “The Will Cain Show,” Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, who was pushing for Ulbricht’s release, praised Trump for issuing the pardon. Paul pointed out that the people who used Silk Road to sell drugs got “minor sentences,” while Ulbricht was given two life sentences without the possibility of parole.
President Donald Trump signs a series of executive orders at the White House on Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Jabin Botsford /The Washington Post via Getty Images / Getty Images)
TRUMP SIGNS ‘FULL AND UNCONDITIONAL’ PARDON OF SILK ROAD CREATOR ROSS ULBRICHT
Ulbricht was convicted after his website Silk Road, which was founded in 2011, was used by those looking to make illegal drug transactions with cryptocurrency. He operated the website from 2011 until his arrest in 2013. In 2015, Ulbricht was sentenced.
In a 2015 press release, ICE called Silk Road “the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the internet.
Last month, Ulbricht wrote, “For my last monthly resolution of 2024, I intend to study every day and to get up to speed as much as I can as I prepare for freedom.”
LEFT: Ross Ulbricht speaks in an emotional video after being pardoned RIGHT: President Trump signs documents in the Oval Office (@RealRossU/X/REUTERS/Carlos Barria)
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Trump vowed to pardon Ulbricht during his 2024 campaign, saying he would do it on “Day 1.” This move was seemingly part of Trump’s strategy to win over Libertarian voters. Trump spoke about commuting Ulbricht’s sentence at both the Libertarian National Convention and the Bitcoin 2024 conference.
In addition to Ulbricht, Trump issued pardons for pro-life activists convicted under the FACE Act and many Jan. 6 defendants. The pardons for pro-life protesters were issued the day before the March for Life in Washington, D.C., where Vice President JD Vance is expected to speak.
