Trump Is Considering Clemency for Silk Road Founder

[jct74]

Trump Is Considering Clemency for Silk Road Founder
Two sources tell The Daily Beast that the president has expressed sympathy for the situation of Ross Ulbricht, who is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Asawin Suebsaeng and Adam Rawnsley
Dec. 15, 2020

In his final weeks in office before Joe Biden’s inauguration, President Donald Trump is weighing granting clemency to Ross Ulbricht, the founder and former administrator of the world’s most famous darknet drug market, Silk Road, The Daily Beast has learned.

According to three people familiar with the matter, the White House counsel’s office has had documents related to Ulbricht’s case under review, and Trump was recently made aware of the situation and the pleas of the Silk Road founder’s allies. Two of these sources say the president has at times privately expressed some sympathy for Ulbricht’s situation and has been considering his name, among others, for his next round of commutations and pardons before the Jan. 20 inauguration of his 2020 Democratic opponent.

It is unclear if Trump has arrived at a final decision yet, but Ulbricht has gained some influential backers in the president’s political and social orbit. Behind the scenes, he has the support of some presidential advisers, as well as criminal justice reform advocates with close ties to the administration and Trump family, including Alice Johnson, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

“I’ve had documents forwarded to my contacts in the White House as early as February,” activist Weldon Angelos, a former music producer and ex-federal inmate, said in a brief interview on Tuesday evening. “In the beginning of the year, [Ulbricht’s] family had reached out to us for our support, and my organization and I have endorsed his full commutation, and I am hopeful that President Trump will commute his sentence in its entirety. This case has perhaps more support than I’ve seen in any case of this kind.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on this story Tuesday.

...

read more:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump...onvicted-of-drug-and-money-laundering-charges

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RELATED:

• Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht arrested, tried, convicted
• Trump to address LP 2024 national convention
  
  (esp. wrt this post and this post)​
• Trump's "Day One" test
• Trump pardons Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht
• Thomas Massie discusses Ross Ulbricht on Timcast

 

[Contumacious]

That is really great news and a fantastic Xmas present

 

[Matt Collins]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-considering-clemency-silk-road-003711390.html

 

[Krugminator2]

Ulbricht would be my top choice for a pardon. He is a hero. Hope he pardons Manafort too as his sentence was insanely excessive for what amounted to hiding income offshore.

 

[jkr]

paging Julian Assange. Julian Assange to the white courtesy phone...

 

[Anti Globalist]

Didn't he allegedly hire a hitman to kill someone?

 

[danda]

Didn't he allegedly hire a hitman to kill someone?

A rumor/smear. All based on a setup/sting by corrupt federal agents who themselves later went to prison for their actions during the investigation. Ulbricht was never tried or convicted for such.

 

[Occam's Banana]

https://twitter.com/RepThomasMassie/status/1339377996470374400

Video clip here: https://video.foxbusiness.com/v/6216769220001

Thomas Massie:
- "[Ulbricht's sentence] is the greatest violation of the 8th Amendment that I'm aware of [...]"
- "There's a good chance [clemency] could happen. [...] There's nobody more deserving of clemency than Ross Ulbricht [...]"

Also Thomas Massie:
- "Tulsi Gabbard and I introduced a bill to repeal the PATRIOT Act, to repeal the FISA amendments act, to forbid the government to put secret back doors into [encryption ...] It would also make it illegal to go after whistleblowers like Edward Snowden [who] deserves a pardon as well."

 

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

Didn't he allegedly hire a hitman to kill someone?

A rumor/smear. All based on a setup/sting by corrupt federal agents who themselves later went to prison for their actions during the investigation. Ulbricht was never tried or convicted for such.

I remember reading a transcript from the "biker" testifying against Ulbricht. The language was so fake that a grade schooler could have spotted it.

 

[Matt Collins]

Why Trump should pardon Russ Ulbricht of the Silk Road

​

 

[trey4sports]

I wish he would. Ulbricht, Assange, Manning, Snowden all deserve pardons.

 

[Contumacious]

Because fedgov has no authority to criminalize drug use


Secondly, Russ was railroaded by a system which is corrupt to its core.



.

 

[Matt Collins]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64AMUEono3Q​

 

[Matt Collins]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KiO8GRgwDk​

 

[sparebulb]

Should have.

Didn't

And never will.

Same for Assange and many Jan sixers.

 

[vita3]

Crypto & a lot of creeps selling darkness

Jail it is

Criminal “libertarians “ crack me up

 

[Anti Globalist]

You know who else will never pardon Russ Ulbricht?

DeSantis.

 

[mtr1979]

I listen to the book American Kingpin on Audible a couple of years ago. I wanted Ross to get away with it, but what I want doesn't matter.

He did indeed order hits on people, but he was dealing with undercover federal agents. One of those agents eventually went to prison for sealing bitcoins.

At the most Ross Ulbricht should have received twenty years in prison, but it isn't about justice it is about revenge. They try to make the feds in this book look like heroes, but anyone with average intelligence can see how the feds dropped the ball multiple times. It shouldn't have taken so long to catch the guy. Things like law enforcement going to the wrong address.

If my memory serves me right they caught the guy because they went to a forum where Ross created a username to advertise his website. Ross used his personal email to create his user account. This was after the feds spent millions trying to catch him.

https://www.amazon.com/American-Kingpin-Criminal-Mastermind-Behind/dp/1591848148

 

[dannno]

I listen to the book American Kingpin on Audible a couple of years ago. I wanted Ross to get away with it, but what I want doesn't matter.

He did indeed order hits on people, but he was dealing with undercover federal agents. One of those agents eventually went to prison for sealing bitcoins.

At the most Ross Ulbricht should have received twenty years in prison, but it isn't about justice it is about revenge. They try to make the feds in this book look like heroes, but anyone with average intelligence can see how the feds dropped the ball multiple times. It shouldn't have taken so long to catch the guy. Things like law enforcement going to the wrong address.

If my memory serves me right they caught the guy because they went to a forum where Ross created a username to advertise his website. Ross used his personal email to create his user account. This was after the feds spent millions trying to catch him.

https://www.amazon.com/American-Kingpin-Criminal-Mastermind-Behind/dp/1591848148

Didn't he put out a hit on someone who was threatening to release his database of users to the public? Not sure what else you could do in that situation..

 

[mtr1979]

Didn't he put out a hit on someone who was threatening to release his database of users to the public? Not sure what else you could do in that situation..

I had to look up the information because I haven't listened to the audiobook in years.

Ross Ulbricht wanted an informant killed.

Here is a link to a Vice article that sums everything up well:
https://www.vice.com/en/article/8q845p/dea-agent-who-faked-a-murder-and-took-bitcoins-from-silk-road-explains-himself

As far as what else could he have done in that situation? I'm assuming sarcasm here because I know you're not advocating a contract hit.

What he could have done? At that point he could have walked away a multi millionaire, fried his computer, kept his mouth shut, denied everything, and he would be a free man right now.

The two takeaways I got from this book: one the total incompetence of the feds on this case, and two Ross could have walked away so many times and never got caught.

What screwed him was they seize his laptop before he could lock it. They literally snuck up on him in a public library and pulled his laptop away from him.