Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the dark-web marketplace Silk Road, has expressed his gratitude to President Donald Trump for granting him a full pardon, marking his first public statement since his release from prison, Al Jazeera reports.
Ulbricht, 40, had been serving a life sentence plus 40 years for running the illicit online marketplace, which US prosecutors said facilitated $183 million in drug sales using Bitcoin.
Trump issued the pardon on Tuesday, fulfilling a campaign promise to libertarians and cryptocurrency advocates who had long lobbied for Ulbricht’s release. In a video message posted on X on Friday, Ulbricht thanked Trump.
“I was doing life without parole, and I was locked up for more than 11 years but he let me out. I’m a free man now. So let it be known that Donald Trump is a man of his word.” Ulbricht continued, “Thank you so much, President Trump for giving me this amazing blessing. I am so, so grateful to have my life back, to have my future back, to have a second chance.”
Ulbricht said he plans to spend time with his family and would share more in the future. His case has become a rallying cry for libertarians and crypto enthusiasts who argued his prosecution was an example of government overreach. They also claimed his punishment was disproportionate to the crime and that he was unfairly held responsible for transactions made by others. Ulbricht’s legal team also contended that he had relinquished control of the site shortly after its inception and was later lured back to take the fall for the true operators.
Trump himself has called Ulbricht’s punishment “ridiculous” and suggested that his prosecution was connected to the “same lunatics who were involved in the modern-day weaponisation of government against me.”
However, US prosecutors portrayed Ulbricht as a criminal mastermind driven by greed and ambition, and they alleged that drugs sold on his site were linked to six deaths. They also claimed he solicited the murders of those he perceived as threats, though he was never convicted of any such charges.
