These allegations murder-for-hires, actually, dissuaded the primary Trump administration from granting clemency to Ulbricht: The White Home in 2020 thought-about liberating Ulbricht however finally rejected the concept due to the alleged function of violence within the case, in line with one former authorities official concerned within the course of who spoke to WIRED on situation of anonymity.
Since then, nevertheless, 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 Might, 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 greater than a thousand contributors within the January 6, 2021 revolt on the US Capitol, although Trump ally Elon Musk promised in a put up to X on Monday night that “Ross might be freed too.”)
Simply what function Ulbricht will play within the free world is way from clear. Even in his assertion to the choose at his sentencing listening to in 2015, Ulbricht by no means absolutely acknowledged the hurt inflicted by the Silk Highway’s drug gross sales and nonetheless reveals little regret for his actions in his account’s public posts to X, Jared Der-Yeghiayan, a former Homeland Safety Investigations agent who infiltrated the Silk Highway undercover as a part of the case towards Ulbricht advised WIRED in November
“The thought of him being launched doesn’t trouble 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 unsuitable, that doesn’t acknowledge the details of the case.”
Amongst some advocates of legal justice reform, nevertheless, Ulbricht has change into an exemplar of over-sentencing, significantly on condition 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 danger to the group,” Alice Johnson, CEO of the justice reform basis Taking Motion for Good advised WIRED in November. Johnson, spent 20 years in jail herself for tried possession with intent to distribute earlier than her life sentence was commuted by Trump in 2018 and pardoned in 2020. “I imagine that Ross’ case goes to pave the best way for a lot of others who’ve been unjustly given these draconian sentences to return residence.”
On Tuesday night time, 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