President Donald Trump did not pardon or commute the prison sentence of Ross Ulbricht on his first day in office, despite a promise that he made during a speech at the Libertarian National Convention last year. However, supporters close to Trump assert that a pardon for Ulbricht is still forthcoming.
“And if you vote for me, on day one, I will commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht to a sentence of time served. He’s already served 11 years. We’re going to get him home. We’re going to get him home,” Trump declared during his address at the Libertarian Party’s 2024 National Convention in May. He also pledged to include a Libertarian in his cabinet, as well as other senior positions, abolish the Department of Education, and vowed to sign an executive order “banning federal agencies from colluding to censor the lawful speech of American citizens,” among other promises.
As of this article’s publication on Tuesday morning, Ulbricht remains incarcerated, serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole at USP Tucson for his involvement in the Silk Road, an online darknet marketplace that operated from 2011 to 2013. The Silk Road facilitated transactions for a variety of products, including illicit substances, using Bitcoin as its primary currency. Prosecutors argued that Ulbricht, operating under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts,” oversaw the platform and enabled criminal activity, leading to his conviction on charges including conspiracy to commit money laundering, computer hacking, and drug trafficking.
However, supporters of Ulbricht argue that his sentence is excessive and fails to reflect his nonviolent role as the site’s creator. Advocacy organizations highlight Ulbricht’s lack of prior criminal history and assert that his prosecution was marred by misconduct, including corruption among federal agents involved in the investigation. They also argue that his case raises important questions about sentencing disparities, digital privacy, and the ethical boundaries of law enforcement in cyberspace.
While there has been no official indication from the Trump administration regarding the timing of Ulbricht’s release, individuals close to him or his staff have openly expressed optimism that action will be taken in the immediate future.
Elon Musk, who leads the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, stirred speculation on social media yesterday by responding to a user’s question about a possible commutation with, “Ross will be freed too.” Libertarian National Committee Chair Angela McArdle also posted on X, urging supporters to remain patient as Trump works through a “stack of executive orders and pardons.” Later, she added that members of Trump’s staff had confirmed to her that a pardon was imminent, with an expectation of it being issued later in the night or the following morning.
“Pres. Trump’s staff just confirmed to me Ross’s pardon will be issued late tonight or tomorrow morning. ❤️,” McArdle stated.
Neither Ulbricht, who still has access to social media, nor members of his family have made any statements regarding the status of his clemency since the inauguration of Donald Trump.
Jordan,
Many, many thanks. This is great documentation. I thought there was just a link somewhere, this is research and organizing effort that I’ll remember.
I now wonder if the LP is keeping track of all these promises and desirables, but Trump seems to be game in putting in effort on many of them as he understands them to be.
Best,
MG
Jordan,
Many, many thanks. This is great documentation. I thought there was just a link somewhere, this is research and organizing effort that I’ll remember.
I now wonder if the LP is keeping track of all these promises and desirables, but Trump seems to be game in putting in effort on many of them as he understands them to be.
Best,
MG
Thanks for taking the time and trouble to revisit and comb through the speech, Jordan, and for transcribing this nice “accountability checklist”. Very handy!
To be fair to Trump, it looks like he has started addressing many of these points already – adequately or inadequately, for better or worse.
Hello Michael, thank you for reading. When you mention the “ten promises,” I’m not sure if you’re referring to the specific commitments Trump made during his speech or the topics voted on by members of the Libertarian Party, which were intended to be presented to Trump at the Libertarian National Convention. Hopefully, one of these explanations answers your question.
In the weeks leading up to the Libertarian National Convention, party members voted on several topics. There were also a significant number of votes for other subjects. Unfortunately, I don’t recall documenting the final questions themselves, as I remember the backend of the convention site as only accessible to delegates. I only saw the results after they were listed on the convention website on May 6. The topics that were voted on (and by how much) are as follows:
1.) Free Ross Ulbricht (12%)
2.) Free Julian Assange (9%)
3.) Defend the Second Amendment (4%)
4.) Peace, Not War (13%)
5.) Abolish he Deep State (11%)
6.) Stop Runaway Inflation (3%)
7.) End the Fed (13%)
8.) No More Foreign Aid (9%)
9.) No Central Bank Digital Currencies (1%)
10.) Eliminate the Federal Income Tax (8%)
11.) Other (19%)
During his speech at the convention, Trump also made numerous specific promises for his second term. There were far more than ten mentioned, and I’ve transcribed everything from his speech where he outlined actions he intended to take if elected for another term:
1.) “I’m committing to you tonight that I will put a Libertarian in my cabinet and also Libertarians in senior posts.”
2.) “When I return to the White House, we will break the deep state grip on our democracy once and for all.”
3.) “We will root out the sickness that has taken over our Justice Department, our FBI, and other agencies. Our goal will be nothing less than the rebirth of fair, equal, and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law.”
4.) “I will appoint a special task force to rapidly review the cases of every political prisoner who has been unjustly persecuted by the Biden administration so that I can sign their pardons or commutations on day one.”
5.) “I will ensure that libertarians are helping to lead that task force. You’ll be on that task force, many of you.”
6.) “If you vote for me, on day one, I will commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht”
7.) “On day one, I will sign an executive order banning federal agencies from colluding to censor the lawful speech of American citizens, and we will remove the rogue bureaucrats who conspire to take away your First Amendment freedoms.”
8.) “I will once again slash a record number of liberty-destroying regulations.”
9.) “I will stop Joe Biden’s plan for the largest tax.”
10.) “I will make the Trump tax cuts, the biggest in the history of our country. We will make them permanent tax cuts”
11.) “We will also stop the massive Biden inflation tax”
12.) “We will cancel the Green New Deal, which is the Green New scam.”
13.) “We will terminate crooked Joe’s insane electric vehicle mandate, and we’re going to bring your energy costs down by 60% and 70% because we will drill, baby, drill.”
14.) “We will eliminate illegal government discrimination, return to a society based on individual rights and individual merit.”
15.) “I will also stop Joe Biden’s crusade to crush crypto. We’re going to stop it. I will ensure that the future of crypto and the future of Bitcoin will be made in the USA, not driven overseas. I will support the right to self-custody to the nation’s 50 million crypto holders.”
16.) “I will keep Elizabeth Warren and her goons away from your Bitcoin, and I will never allow the creation of a Central Bank digital currency.”
17.) “I will also immediately end the humanitarian disaster on our Southern border.”
18.) “Before I even arrive at the Oval Office, shortly after we win the presidency, I will have the horrible war between Russia and Ukraine settled so we quit spending hundreds of billions of dollars to fight other people’s wars and so that we start immediately saving thousands and thousands of lives.”
19.) “And as we speak, Joe Biden’s minions are in Geneva, secretly negotiating to surrender more of our liberty to the World Health Organization. Drafts of the agreement show that they want to subjugate American to foreign nations, attack free speech, empower the World Health Organization to redistribute American resources. They’re going to take our money and send it all over the world to other countries that we need for our own citizens in the event of a pandemic. And it can happen again. I am hereby demanding that Joe Biden submit these monstrosities to the Senate as treaties. They have to be submitted as treaties because he cannot be allowed to do that. Destroy our country, he is. If he does not, I will rip them up and throw them out on day one of the Trump administration.”
20.) “On education, we will cut federal funding for any school pushing Marxist and communist race and gender theories on our children.”
21.) “We will keep men out of women’s sports.”
22.) “And I will not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate.”
23.) “We will shut down our out-of-control federal Department of Education and give it back to the states and local governments. I will return power to the states, local governments, and to the American people.”
24.) “I will always defend religious liberty and the right to keep and bear arms.”
25.) “And I will secure our elections.”
I’m quite curious now how many hours after his first 24 hours in office was Trump said dilatory. Anyone have exact data/link? It may make an amusing article.
CBS says he did it his first full day, pleasing libertarians.
https://www.wltx.com/article/news/politics/trump-pardons-silk-road-founder-ross-ulbricht-first-full-day-office/101-5f33c577-d194-47ee-8f1e-b034e62e852c
jordan, please let me know when you have information on his 10 promises to the USLP. Thanks.
Darryl, Trump did something good.
Your nitpicking over technicalities doesn’t change that.
Trump did it on his first full day. Not just clemency, but a full pardon. Biden did nothing. Fauci did nothing. Chase Oliver did nothing. Trump did.
@MFG:
1) it took him over 24 hours
2) his promise was “on Day 1”
Ross Ulbricht was pardoned TODAY a few hours after you published this article. POTUS kept his word to Libertarians, and this young man has his life back!
Trump also thanked Libertarians by name (!) for their support, a not insignificant gesture of goodwill towards independent voters.
Please issue a correction here, and please publish a new article on the shout-out from Trump. Many big politicians have not acknowledged independent voters. P.S., I’ll give Trump the benefit of the doubt that he’s been busy on day one. Ross is FREE.
Source on pardon today: https://x.com/AaronRDay/status/1881860973474070914
See also: Letter from Rand Paul to Trump, hours before the Ross Ulbricht pardon.
https://x.com/MLiamMcCollum/status/1881823926281777409
Full and unconditional pardon was issued on Day Two. This is above the promise of simply commuting the sentence. Without the LP to provide a platform for President Trump to make this promise it is unlikely that a commutation let alone a pardon would have been possible.
New York Post just reported that Trump issued the pardon “in honor … of the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly.”
Hey Jordan,
Could you please point me to the link here of the 10 promises negotiated with Trump by the USLP? It would help me. Many thanks!
MG
Done. Jiminy, give the guy 24 hours.
Perhaps a tiny bit of a PR blunder, having expressly said “on day one”, but meanwhile
https://x.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1881503382881607860
and
https://x.com/LifeNewsHQ/status/1881482386686476745
so hopefully Ulbricht won’t have to queue up for too much longer.