Former President Donald Trump has pledged to pardon Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, if he is re-elected in the upcoming November election.
“If you vote for me, on day one I will commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht,” Trump announced at the Libertarian Party’s National Convention in Washington on May 25.
“He’s already served 11 years, we’re going to get him home,” he said about Ulbricht, the creator of Silk Road, the first modern darknet market with a Bitcoin-based payment system.
Silk Road was launched in 2011 and operated by Ulbricht from his personal laptop under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts.”
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seized Ulbricht’s laptop on October 1, 2013.
Ulbricht was convicted in a U.S. federal court in 2015 on various charges related to Silk Road’s operations. He received a sentence of two life terms plus forty years, with no possibility of parole.
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Trump also emphasized his pro-crypto stance, following a change in his position on digital assets earlier this year.
“I will ensure that the future of crypto and the future of Bitcoin will be made in the USA, not driven overseas,” he declared, promising to protect those who hold their crypto assets outside centralized crypto exchanges.
“I will support the right to self-custody, to the nation’s 50 million crypto holders I say this with your vote, I will keep Elizabeth Warren and her goons away from your Bitcoin,” Trump added, presenting a stark contrast to his previous characterization of Bitcoin as a scam during his presidency.
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