Trump grants freedom to Internet black market designer Ross Ulbricht | Tracer Tecz

President Trump issued a pardon on Tuesday to Ross Ulbricht who worked as the mastermind behind Silk Road on the dark web before it became an illegal drug marketplace. On Truth Social Trump shared that he pardoned Ulbricht to honor Ulbricht's mother and support the Libertarian movement.

In 2015 a federal court sentenced Ulbricht to life imprisonment after he owned and ran Silk Road as "Dread Pirate Roberts." During his 2024 campaign Trump vowed to grant clemency to Ulbricht when he met with Libertarian Party members last May. The Libertarian Party began its effort to free Ulbricht after he started Silk Road as a testing ground for Libertarian ideas. Members of the Libertarian Party believed that Ulbricht's life sentence demonstrated the government's excessive power.

Credit: Chip Somodevilla