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silk road Ross Ulbricht

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10 25

Nearly a decade ago, Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road dark web marketplace was sentenced to a double life sentence in prison. Now, he’s out and has become a powerful influencer and political figure in the MAGA movement.

Ryan Mac at the New York Times has been covering Ulbricht for over a decade. Hejoined me to dive deep into Ulbrict’s’ past, how the Silk Road transformed the web, and how this crazy alliance between bitcoin billionaires, libertarians, and MAGA die-hards has skyrocketed Ulbricht to fame and set him up for a major role in politics.

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01/22/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

As senators weigh the Pentagon nominee's fate, the former Fox News host is dealing with yet another personal controversy.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said Congress will be “looking” into former President Joe Biden’s pardons for his family shortly after defending President Donald Trump’s pardons of Jan. 6 Capitol rioters.

[Ross] Ulbricht is free now, solely because libertarians supported Trump and this is the payoff they asked for. That's how our president operates, ladies and gentlemen.

Several singers in the choir’s track he produced assaulted cops on January 6th.

“The people who did this, they need to feel the heat. They need to be put behind bars."

At a rally the day before the ceremony, the Girls Gone Bible podcasters called on God to condemn Trump’s critics.

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ulbricht is the founder of Silk Road, an online platform for large-scale transactions by drug traffickers and other criminals with a need for secrecy. Now, maybe you think that's OK because drugs shouldn't be illegal in the first place. Mileage will vary. But Ulbricht was also accused of contracting to have people killed—though apparently he was duped and the murders never took place.¹ Still, as an appellate court noted, he certainly tried:

DPR [Ulbricht's handle, "Dread Pirate Roberts"] connected with Redandwhite, who was FriendlyChemist’s supplier, and wrote that “FriendlyChemist is a liability and I wouldn’t mind if he was executed.” After negotiating the logistical details of the murder, Ulbricht agreed to pay Redandwhite $150,000 in Bitcoins to kill FriendlyChemist. DPR paid Redandwhite, who later confirmed that he had received the payment and carried out the murder, and sent what appeared to be a photo of the dead victim to DPR. DPR replied that he had “received the picture and deleted it,” and thanked Redandwhite for his “swift action.”

....Later, DPR ordered four other murders through Redandwhite.... One of the government’s expert witnesses was able to link the payments for all five murders to Bitcoin wallets located on Ulbricht’s laptop.

....At the sentencing hearing, the district court resolved several disputed issues of fact. For example, because Ulbricht contested his responsibility for the five commissioned murders for hire, the district court found by a preponderance of the evidence that Ulbricht did in fact commission the murders, believing that they would be carried out. The district court characterized the evidence of the murders for hire, which included Ulbricht’s journal, chats with other Silk Road users, and the evidence showing that Ulbricht actually paid a total of $650,000 in Bitcoins for the killings, as “ample and unambiguous.”

Bygones. Ulbricht is free now, solely because libertarians supported Trump and this is the payoff they asked for. That's how our president operates, ladies and gentlemen.

¹Nor was he tried on these charges. After Ulbricht received two life sentences on the drug charges, it apparently didn't seem worth it.

politico 1 25

Trump on Tuesday granted a pardon to Ross William Ulbricht, the imprisoned creator of a dark web marketplace for drugs and other illicit products whose case had become a cause célèbre for libertarians and crypto enthusiasts.

Trump explicitly tied his decision to free Ulbricht, who is serving a life sentence, to the support his campaign drew from people who viewed the Silk Road founder as a pioneer and victim of government persecution.

“I just called the mother of Ross William Ulbricht to let her know that in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly, it was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son,” the president wrote on Truth Social.

He also compared Ulbricht’s treatment by authorities to the investigations that have dogged him in recent years.

“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,” he said.

In 2015, Ulbricht, who called himself the Dread Pirate Roberts, was sentenced in Manhattan federal court to life in prison for owning and operating Silk Road, the dark web marketplace for buying and selling drugs and other illegal goods. It gained a following among crypto enthusiasts and libertarians in part for being an early user of Bitcoin and challenging governmental authority.

Silk Road had thousands of listings for over 200 million dollars worth of narcotics, which were sold and distributed across more than 10 different countries.

Trump previously said he would commute Ulbricht’s sentence “on Day One” at the Libertarian National Convention in 2024. It came a day after he granted clemency to nearly 1,600 people charged or convicted for storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

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