Those allegations of murders-for-hire, in fact, dissuaded the first Trump administration from granting clemency to Ulbricht. The White House in 2020 considered freeing Ulbricht but ultimately rejected the idea because of the alleged role of violence in the case, according to one former government official involved in the process who spoke to WIRED on condition of anonymity.
Since then, however, the Trump administration has shifted its stance on Ulbricht’s case—in part, perhaps, due to its embrace of the libertarian cryptocurrency community, for whom Ulbricht has become a martyr and cause célèbre. At the Libertarian National Convention in Washington, DC, last May, then presidential candidate Trump promised to commute Ulbricht’s sentence “on day one” if reelected. (Ultimately, day one passed with no clemency for Ulbricht, even as Trump pardoned more than a thousand participants in the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol, though Trump ally Elon Musk promised in a post to X on Monday evening that “Ross will be freed too.”)
Just what role Ulbricht will play in the free world is far from clear. Even in his statement to the judge at his sentencing hearing in 2015, Ulbricht never fully acknowledged the harm inflicted by the Silk Road’s drug sales. And according to Jared Der-Yeghiayan, a former Homeland Security Investigations agent who infiltrated the Silk Road during the investigation, Ulbricht still shows little remorse for his actions in his public posts to X.
“The idea of him being released doesn’t bother me in the least,” says Der-Yeghiayan, who now works as the head of strategic intelligence at cryptocurrency tracing firm Chainalysis. “I do get bothered if there’s now a perception that he did nothing wrong; that doesn’t acknowledge the facts of the case.”
Among some advocates of criminal justice reform, however, Ulbricht has become an exemplar of oversentencing, particularly given that he was technically charged with nonviolent crimes. “Ross has served more than enough time. He has been a model prisoner. He’s a first-time, nonviolent offender. He poses zero safety risk to the community,” Alice Johnson, CEO of the justice reform foundation Taking Action for Good, told WIRED in November. Johnson spent two decades in prison herself for attempted possession with intent to distribute before Trump commuted her life sentence in 2018 and pardoned her in 2020. “I believe that Ross’ case is going to pave the way for many others who have been unjustly given these draconian sentences to come home.”
On Tuesday night, Ulbricht’s supporters celebrated his freedom and voiced their gratitude to Trump for his clemency. “Words cannot express how grateful we are,” reads a tweet from @Free_Ross, an X account devoted to the more than decade-long effort on Ulbricht’s behalf. “President Trump is a man of his word and he just saved Ross’s life. ROSS IS A FREE MAN!!!!!”
Additional reporting by Joel Khalili