The potential pardon of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht has divided members of the White House, with some blaming the intransigence of the White House Counsel’s office from freeing a man who has become somewhat of a folk hero to many on the Right and in Silicon Valley.
Ulbricht, who was convicted in 2015 for a litany of charges including computer hacking, conspiracy to traffic narcotics, and money laundering, has been serving a double life sentence without parole at a federal prison in Arizona.
His story has garnered sympathy from inside the White House, including from President Trump himself, according to a senior member of the administration.
The Washington Examiner has learned that some in the White House believe the White House Chief Counsel’s office is protecting the intelligence community by blocking Ulbricht’s pardon, signaling tensions between those who consider themselves loyal to Trump and believe a hostile “deep state” of government bureaucrats has worked against his agenda since Day One; and those who see themselves as traditional members of the GOP.
A person close to the president said Trump has been reaching out to individuals to tell them they would be pardoned or have their sentences commuted. “Lawyers are telling a few others they will not,” this person added. Clemency appeals are typically handled by officials inside the White House Counsel’s office.
The White House declined to comment.
Trump met with advisers over the weekend to finalize a list of pardons he is expected to issue before leaving office this week. As of Sunday night, all criminal justice cases had been decided, a source familiar with the case said. Other pardons for political allies or associates are still under review, including for former adviser Steve Bannon, who pleaded not guilty to charges of defrauding donors for a campaign to build a southern border wall. Bannon’s clemency case is said to be “TBD,” according to Fox News.
One person lobbying the president vigorously on Ulbricht’s behalf is Alice Marie Johnson, a source said. Trump commuted Johnson’s sentence in 2018, before granting her a full pardon in late August.
For nearly two years, Ulbricht ran the darknet website Silk Road under the alias “Dread Pirate Roberts,” which became an Amazon of sorts for those interested in purchasing a wide array of narcotics such as heroin, weaponry, or even stolen sports memorabilia with cryptocurrency. Ulbricht always maintained the Silk Road was an online manifestation of his anti-state philosophy of promoting a free and peaceful exchange of goods and services without government oversight.
Since his arrest, libertarian and antigovernment activists have lobbied for a pardon, calling Ulbricht a nonviolent offender who received a harsher sentence than scores of criminals behind bars for murder and rape convictions. A Change.org petition calling for his release has been signed by over 382,000 people and has received support from members of Congress like GOP Rep. Thomas Massie, civil libertarian groups like the National Lawyers Guild, and proponents of cryptocurrencies and encryption technologies.
“Ross Ulbricht is condemned to die in prison for creating an e-commerce website called Silk Road,” the petition reads. “An entrepreneur passionate about free markets and privacy, he was 26 when he made the site. He was never prosecuted for causing harm or bodily injury and no victim was named at trial.”
Pat Cipollone, the chief White House counsel, is the one tasked with any final signoff on pardons before they reach the president’s desk.
While Trump is said to be favorably disposed to Ulbricht’s clemency appeal, Ulbricht “still needs to get past White House counsel,” Cipollone, a source said.
Allegations of murder-for-hire have dogged Ulbricht’s case and are believed to have influenced his sentencing. The charges were dropped in 2018, but are now said to have stalled his prospect of a pardon or commutation. A source familiar with the case said Cipollone is rejecting cases with any violence associated.
Alan Dershowitz told the Washington Examiner on Monday that he has been advising the president on pardon cases but only for nonviolent offenders.
Another factor for Ulbricht is the length of his sentence, of which he has served seven years.
Aside from Ulbricht’s libertarian bona fides, his harsh sentence and the documented abuses by investigators in the criminal investigation leading up to his arrest confirm the worst suspicions by many in the White House about abuses within the intelligence and federal law enforcement communities. In one case, abuses by a Drug Enforcement Administration and Secret Service agent on Ulbricht’s case were never disclosed to the defense during his trial. Both of those law enforcement officials were later sentenced to prison for their abuses in the Ulbricht investigation.
A federal appeals court denied Ulbricht’s petition for a new sentencing hearing following the disclosure of the abuses.
As recently as December 2020, the Department of Justice announced that one of Ulbricht’s associates, Michael Weigand, was sentenced to eight months in prison for providing false statements to federal agents during their investigation of Silk Road.
“Silk Road emerged as the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the Internet at the time,” the DOJ said in a statement at the time. “During its more than two-and-a-half years in operation, Silk Road was used by several thousand drug dealers and other unlawful vendors to distribute hundreds of kilograms of illegal drugs and other illicit goods and services to well over one hundred thousand buyers, and to launder hundreds of millions of dollars deriving from these unlawful transactions.”
