Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

I'm just assuming any pardons issued since Monday are probably to bad people.

It's very hard to square his sentencing.

If he had been running an IRL drug and gun facilitation marketplace in my city, I would have said 20 years was appropriate.

But when the feds make it a techno-political issue, I feel the urge to push back.

This is a general question for any reader here who disagrees with the original prison sentence. (Ignore the Presidential pardon for a moment.) What is a reasonable prison sentence for his crimes? 10-20 years?

How are cartels terrorist organizations but online drug markets are not illegal ?

Ross deserved prison 100%, but 2x life + 40 years in American prison, which is hell on earth on purpose. That's just beyond fc** up.

All these people here saying his sentence is deserved. It's just sick. How is your crime rate going? Declining...right? ....nope

I wonder if he is going to be able to launder and cash out whatever crypto he squirreled away. His finances are probably going to be closely watched.

Starting a business that accepts crypto payments is going to be a tell.

finally! let’s go!

though he was very stupid with how he did it, I am happy he is a free man

I don't think he should have done any time for the drug-related charges. And 10 years is more than enough for a murder-for-hire in which nobody got hurt. So this seems... just.

Some questions, as many of us are from another continent and are only marginally aware of the matter - so, for many here at HN:

1. Ross Ulbricht the ultimate entrepreneur?

2. Ross Ulbricht was a freedom fighter?

A full unconditional pardon is one thing, reduction of sentence through judicial processes is another. He never pardoned Snowden and Assange .

Why do they still have courts in the US again?

Is Donald also refunding everyone’s deposits on Silkroad?

Who's next? Sam Bankman-Fried or Elizabeth Holmes?

Explain to me like to five year old why when I create a _successful_ drug marketplace that sold whole bunch of illegal drugs should be pardoned?

This is the same president that wants to give the death penalty to Drug Dealers but I guess that's fine so long as you use crypto.

Was there anything said about pardoning Snowden?

More people should get these “pardons” instead of the parole process based on the similar criteria on how they are pardoned.

So is SBF next? FTX customers were made whole and he didn't try to kill anyone or facilitate the narcotics trade.

This is a rare Trump win. There are many things to criticize him for, but this pardon isn't one of them. I don't think anyone, after researching this case, would be okay with the life sentence handed down to Ross.

This is just. If a president can pardon people preemptively then they can pardon someone retroactively as well.

The amount of doublethink, false-flagging, misinformation, and “looking the other way” in this thread is just absolutely disgusting.

can we all just agree that he was given a ridiculous sentence and trump did a good thing, is that so hard.

When Snowden, is my question. RFK put a lot of words into "if I am in charge that'll be my first thing". Yeah, he's not the president but he's also not nobody anymore.

So are online illegal drug marketplaces legal now if they’re run entirely on crypto?

I will take this opportunity to reflect on the fact that I spent some time considering a purchase of certain controlled substances on Silk Road, but failed to recognize that my own purchasing impulse was a pretty good indicator that the currency involved might be worth a casual investment.

I'm curious, what are the arguments for or against him being pardoned?

Didnt he paid a hitman to kill a dude, and ended up being an fbi agent ?

This is amazing. Well done.

Good.

Legalities aside, is it more evil to hire a dude to kill your enemy, or to go kill your enemy yourself? (I'd go with the former because if you go kill your enemy yourself you're at least accepting that it may go the other way).

Among other things this guy was trying to have people murdered.

can't wait for him to star on joe rogan podcast!

Non-USian here. I'm interested in why.

Given that Trump didn't pardon Ulbricht during his first presidential term, why now?

What does Trump, who is notoriously transactional, get in return for this? Alternatively, what signal is he sending and to who?

I wish this thread were discussing how in America you can get drunk in a bar, step into a 4,000 motorized bullet, kill someone or an entire family, and get a slap on the wrist.

This thread is a great lesson in "Politics is a mind virus"

I recommend you read the HN thread when Ulbricht was sentenced [0] first, then come here and read all the "Honest, genuine question, why?"s

Then start practicing not letting politics influence your thought process

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9626985

Disclosure - I immensely dislike Trump and think Ross Ublricht deserved to be convicted.

That said - There is no evidence that anyone was ever killed, there is pretty thin evidence that he actually ever intended to hire any hitmen (though he may have defrauded people who thought they were hiring hitmen), and a life sentence for non-violent drug trafficking seems draconian. I certainly don't think this should have been one of Trump's priorities (I'm guessing it came through Vance, Musk, or someone else in the crypto community), but I don't have a big problem with it.

Absolute no brainer, he should be celebrated. Countless lives were saved via the harm reduction effect of a peer reviewed, reputation based platform. Of course if we had less draconian drug policy, it wouldn't be necessary but here we are.

How is the thread basically off topic?

These discussions are very interesting. So many red flags from Trump (this pardon, ending birthright citizenship...), and people try to justify these things. America is unfortunately heading for a very dark time. Politics aside, I am rather uncomfortable with the power the president possesses. We were always mindful that there are systems of checks and balances. However, given the current court overturned a precedent (Roe), I am unsure what the future holds. This pardon makes me very uneasy.

I am happy to see that Trump is a man of his word. I voted for him just because of this campaign promise. I would have voted for almost anyone who promised this.

Hope he goes on Dark Net Diaries.

I am surprised Trump pardoned him, not unhappy bout it tho!

Presidents and governors should NOT have the power to pardon people. And if they do it should be ONE pardon per term.

Is Trump not supposed to be tough-on-crime? How does pardoning a drug dealer factor into that? Is Trump against the war on drugs?

Trump refused to pardon Assange and Snowden. I suppose he has priorities.

In 2021, presumably during SBF's (big Democrat donor) FTX scam, Trump thought that Bitcoin was a scam:

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57392734

Now he is best friends with the "crypto", AI, and H1B bros.

A full pardon should mean that he can get all his bitcoin back, as I understand it.