How Trump Decided to Pardon Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht

In December 2023, Angela McArdle, chairwoman of the Libertarian Party, flew to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Donald J. Trump.

Mr. Trump wanted to know how to win over libertarian voters, an area he thought could help him win back the presidency, Ms. McArdle said in an interview. He had an answer: Free Ross Ulbricht, the Bitcoin pioneer who was sentenced to life in prison in 2015 for creating Silk Road, the world’s largest online drug market. Mr. Ulbricht was seen as a libertarian hero for building an informal market out of government reach.

“I like to set people free,” Mr. Trump said, according to Ms. McArdle. Five months later, he hosted him at the Libertarian Party’s national convention, where he announced on stage that, if elected president, he would release Mr. Ulbricht.

On Tuesday, the day after his inauguration, Mr. Trump made good on that promise. He called Mr. Ulbricht’s mother, Lyn Ulbricht, to tell her privately that he had given her son, now 40, a full pardon. the Libertarian Movement, who supported me strongly.”

Mr. Ulbricht’s pardon was not an obvious topic for Mr. Trump. Unlike the nearly 1,600 people who received pardons or extraditions this week for their involvement in the Jan. 6 riots, Mr. Ulbricht had no direct contact with the president. But the initiative has been in the works for a long time, after more than a decade of activism by Mr. Ulbricht’s supporters – including cryptocurrency investors, libertarian politicians and especially Ms. Ulbricht, who is pro-liberty. his son.

Many of them enjoyed an unusual level of access to Mr. Trump. As it became clear last year that Mr Trump would be the Republican nominee, they campaigned behind the scenes for a pardon – including pledging to raise money for election proposal – which turned into an investigation into how special interest groups can mobilize to influence the president.

Ms. McArdle said that Mr. Trump was contacted by Richard Grenell, one of her longtime advisers and a former director of national intelligence, who suggested that she treat the conversation with Mr. Trump as a business negotiation. .

Ric said, ‘She’s a deal maker, Angela,'” he said. “Don’t be afraid to ask for something.”

Mr. Grenell, Ms. Ulbricht and the Trump administration did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Ulbricht’s pardon shows that “if you have a group of people focused around Trump, you have a good chance of getting a pardon,” said Dan Richman, a former federal prosecutor who taught at at Columbia Law School. “There are problems with the amnesty system that works like that.”

In 2011, Mr. Ulbricht founded the Silk Road and turned it into one of the most famous places in the so-called Dark Web, a hidden corner of the Internet that people can only access through a special browser. . Silk Road facilitated more than 1.5 million transactions, generating more than $200 million in sales of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and other drugs, authorities said. Users made anonymous transactions with Bitcoin, then a recent cryptocurrency, and were able to publish the product average in Amazon style.

In 2013, the FBI arrested Mr. Ulbricht and charged with leading the Silk Road. In court, prosecutors presented evidence that Mr. Ulbricht also solicited the killings of people he believed to be threats to the company, although he was never tried on charges of murder for hire and there were no allegations of murder.

At least six people died from drugs bought along the Silk Road, prosecutors said. A federal judge in the Southern District of New York, where the case was heard, called Mr. Ulbricht “the mastermind of a global digital drug trafficking enterprise” that had “totally destroyed the our community” what he did. In 2015, he received a life sentence for drug distribution, money laundering and other charges, and was eventually transferred to a federal prison in Arizona.

The sentence upset some legal experts. It also led to protests from libertarians who opposed tougher drug penalties and crypto enthusiasts who saw Mr. Ulbricht as a pioneer.

Silk Road “introduced a million people to Bitcoin,” said David Bailey, chief executive of Bitcoin Magazine, which campaigned for Mr. Ulbricht. “He represents many of the ideological views of our society.”

From prison, Mr. Ulbricht has played down his relationship with Bitcoin. In October 2018, he sent a letter to his mother celebrating the 10th anniversary of the creation of the cryptocurrency and compared himself to the “proud parents” of technology.

“I think I’m the estranged father in prison, who can’t be there to raise his children,” he wrote in the letter, which was later published by Bitcoin Magazine.

On a social media account run by his family, Mr. Ulbricht shares his artwork, updates on his prison garden and thoughts on new technology. The accounts posted a link to an online petition asking for clemency, targeting Mr Trump and the Trump family.

Behind the scenes, Ms. Ulbricht worked to popularize the “Free Ross” slogan, which became a rallying cry at crypto conferences. He has also worked with Republican politicians and far-right activists, hoping to reach Mr. Trump’s turf.

After losing the 2020 election, Mr. Trump considered freeing Ulbricht, and at least one whistleblower paid at least $22,500 to help secure his release, according to financial forms. But Mr. Trump left office without taking action.

“The higher the expectations, the bigger the disappointment, and our hopes are high for the sentence to be changed,” Mr. Ulbricht’s family posted on social media in January 2021.

The new Republican presidential campaign offered new opportunities.

In 2023, Ms. Ulbricht renewed her push to reach out to influential Republicans, including Vivek Ramaswamy, who is running for president, two people close to her said. Mr. Ramaswamy, who did not respond to requests for comment, has offered to free Ulbricht if elected and has spoken openly about his meeting with his mother.

Then, in late 2023, Ms. McArdle contacted Mr. Grenell, who sought advice on Trump’s behalf about the libertarian vote, said. He soon flew to Florida to meet Mr. Trump.

In the meeting, Ms. McArdle told Mr. Trump that Mr. Ulbricht was the victim of prosecutorial overreach and a biased criminal justice system, echoing complaints the former president has made since leaving office. .

“It’s the same New York court case that’s been bothering you,” he told her.

Last year, Mr. Trump and his staff also met with Mr. Bailey and representatives of Bitcoin Magazine, which pushed for Mr. Ulbricht. Tracy Hoyos-López, who worked at the magazine, has said publicly that Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s campaign chairman, arranged the 2016 infusion. (Ms. Hoyos-López is the daughter of Hector Hoyos, a former associate of Mr. Manafort.)

On social media, Mr. Bailey announced that he planned to raise “$100 million for the Trump campaign.” He also went to Mar-a-Lago in June, he said in an interview, where he presented Trump with a letter from Lyn Ulbricht.

At the time, Mr. Trump had already vowed to release Ulbricht at the Libertarian Party convention. He doubled down on that assurance in July at a conference in Nashville organized by Bitcoin Magazine, saying he would amend Mr. Ulbricht’s sentence — allowing him to walk free, but not erase the conviction. Around that time, Mr. Trump also met privately with Ms. Ulbricht, said Ms. McArdle, who was briefed on the meeting.

Ms McArdle has faced backlash from other libertarians over her relationship with Mr Trump. But he still contacted the new administration last week, asking that Mr. Trump grant Mr. Ulbricht a full pardon, not just a commutation. “Promise made, promise kept,” a Trump staffer emailed him, according to a copy of the message seen by The New York Times.

On Tuesday night, Ms. McArdle, Mr. Bailey and Ms. Hoyos-López gathered at X’s live radio station to await an update. Mr. Bailey told the audience that Ms. Ulbricht was in Arizona, preparing for her son’s release.

Within hours of the pardon, an X account controlled by Mr. Ulbricht’s family posted his photo. came out of prison with a small factory and a sack of goods.

“FREEDOM!!!!” said the article.

Kenneth P. Vogel contributed to the report. Susan C. Beachy participated in the research.