Trump Grants Full Pardon to Silk Road Creator Ross Ulbricht

President Trump Pardons Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht

On January 21, 2025, President Donald Trump granted a full and unconditional pardon to Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, a notorious dark web marketplace known for facilitating the sale of illegal goods, including drugs and hacking tools. Ulbricht had been serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole since his 2015 conviction on charges such as drug trafficking and money laundering.

In his announcement, President Trump described Ulbricht’s sentence as “ridiculous” and criticized those involved in his conviction, referring to them as “scum” and accusing them of being among the same individuals responsible for the “weaponization of government” against him during his time in office.

Ulbricht’s case has been a focal point for libertarian activists, who viewed his lengthy sentence as disproportionate, especially considering that many of the site’s major drug sellers received lesser penalties. The pardon has been praised by figures such as Libertarian National Committee Chair Angela McArdle, who called Ulbricht “a libertarian political prisoner for more than a decade.”

Silk Road, which operated from 2011 until Ulbricht’s arrest in 2013, was a pioneering dark web marketplace that utilized Bitcoin for transactions, allowing users to buy and sell illegal items anonymously. The site gained notoriety for its role in the illicit drug trade and other illegal activities.

Ulbricht’s pardon is part of a series of clemency actions taken by President Trump, including pardons for over 1,500 individuals linked to the January 6 Capitol riots, whom he described as having received “ridiculous and excessive” sentences.