Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to two life sentences for a variety of drug-distribution charges in connection with Silk Road, has been pardoned.
Wow, did I call that one wrong.
In our previous article, “We Got Our First DMCA! From the Ross Ulbricht Legal Defense Fund,” I wrote:
At this point his only hope is that some future US President will grant him clemency. The President has an unlimited authority to pardon anyone. There’s at least four reasons that is very unlikely to happen.
I think I got things right and yet he was pardoned anyway.
My list:
- “First, it has been US tradition going back to George Washington that a pardon is for those who show remorse.” There are exceptions where people are pardoned for political reasons, but Ross showed no remorse.
- “Second, there is no political benefit to a President in pardoning Ross.” I’m not a an expert on politics, but I think this is still true. Trump can’t even run for reelection.
- “Third, Obama and perhaps Trump probably remembered the Ulbricht case. I doubt Biden does. Go forward a few Presidents and Ulbricht will have faded into obscurity.” I thnk this is true, because very few people before this pardon were still talking about Ulbricht.
- “Finally, these pardon recommendations typically come up through the political and governmental machinery. It’s not that the President reviews old cases in his spare time. When his file does come up through routine procedure, the murders-for-hire are going to be strongly considered.” In other words, he so offended the justice system that he would never be considered.
What can I say? I think that’s all accurate. I’m a bit baffled, as the justification given is rather strange.
So Why?
Putting on my political analysis hat, what does Trump gain?
First, he fulfills a political promise. At the Libertarian Party convention, Trump said:
“If you vote for me on day one I will commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht. He’s already served 11 years. We’re gonna get him home.”
He actually waited for day two.
However, the payoff on that promise is pretty weak. Keep in mind that libertarians poll at well under 1%. Hardcore libertarians are going to vote for libertarians. Those who are less committed to that cause will likely vote Republican. They’re certainly not going to vote for Democrats. So the payback is pretty minimal. You can make the case that in closely-contested states every tenth of a percentage counts, I suppose.
Beyond that…I’ve got nothing.
Let’s Remember Who Ross Ulbricht Is
You’ll hear a lot of screechy chat about libertarianism, free commerce, drug policy reform, etc. Maybe that’s all worth talking about, but not in the context of Ross Ulbricht
Ross Ulbricht attempted to have multiple people murdered.
I’ll close by repeating something from our previous article.
Here are some things the US Second Court of Appeals said:
Ulbricht does not mention his orders for the commission of those murders until his reply brief. Even there, he does not argue that the district court erred in concluding that he deliberately commissioned those murders; rather, he claims instead only that the murders did not support a life sentence because they did not actually take place.
So Ross admitted that he paid $730,000 to have five people murdered. He would have been indicted on this charge as well, but once he was put away for life plus, the government saw no need to waste time and money on furher prosecutions.
And this isn’t one stray mention in that opinion. It’s referred to multiple times as the reason he got a harsh sentence:
The district court found by a preponderance of the evidence that Ulbricht commissioned at least five murders in the course of protecting Silk Road’s anonymity, a finding that Ulbricht does not challenge in this appeal.
The fact that his hired assassin may have defrauded him does not reflect positively on Ulbricht’s character.
In light of the overwhelming evidence, discussed below, that Ulbricht was prepared, like other drug kingpins, to protect his profits by paying large sums of money to have individuals who threatened his enterprise murdered, it would be plainly wrong to conclude that he was sentenced for accidental deaths that the district court discussed only in passing in imposing sentence.
Ulbricht discussed those anticipated murders callously and casually in his journal and in his communications with the purported assassin Redandwhite.
As the district court stated in discussing Ulbricht’s journal entries concerning these projected murders, his words are “the words of a man who is callous as to the consequences or the harm and suffering that [his actions] may cause others.”
Moreover, he attempted to commission at least five murders to protect his criminal enterprise. Those facts render his case distinguishable from those who committed other crimes using Silk Road or otherwise facilitated its operation.
And now he’s free.
I also enjoy using LEBs! I have an empire of little guys for VPNs, larger guys for apps, and big guys for databases and storage. When I'm not in front a screen I'm into German Shepherd dogs, quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop roleplaying games, and forest hiking.
I enjoy writing technical articles here on LowEndBox to help people get more out of their systems. You can find me on LowEndTalk @raindog308
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