Blockchain
Trump pledges to free Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht if re-elected
Donald J. Trump has pledged to commute Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht’s life prison sentence to time served if he is re-elected president.
“If you vote for me, on day one, I will commute Ross Ulbricht’s sentence to time already served,” Trump said during his Saturday night speech at the Libertarian National Convention in Washington, DC. “He has already served 11 years, we will take him home.”
“I am very positive and open-minded about cryptocurrency companies and everything about this new and thriving industry. Our country must be a leader in this field. There is no second place,” Trump wrote, adding that President Joe Biden “wants [the cryptocurrency industry] die a slow and painful death. This will never happen with me!”
In his evening speech, Trump’s promise to free Ulbricht was met with raucous applause from the assembled audience, many of whom held signs reading “Free Ross.”
Ulbricht has become something of a martyr to many in the crypto community, as well as many libertarians, who see Ulbricht’s draconian sentence as a misstep by the government and a violation of his constitutional rights. In 2018, the Libertarian Party guest Then-President Trump pardoned Ulbricht.
Before Trump’s presidency ended in January 2021, he had granted clemency to 143 people, pardoning 73, including Ripple board member Ken Kurson, and commuting the sentences of 70 others. He offered no clemency to Ulbricht, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange or Edward Snowden, who provided details about a US surveillance program to American journalist Glenn Greenwald.
Trump also made more general comments about cryptocurrency at the convention, telling attendees that he would “stop Joe Biden’s crusade to crush cryptocurrency — we’re going to stop it.”
“I will ensure that the future of cryptocurrencies and the future of bitcoin are made in the United States and not pushed overseas. I will support the right to self-care,” Trump said, to applause. “To the nation’s fifty million cryptocurrency holders, I say this: I will keep Elizabeth Warren and her minions away from your bitcoin, and I will never allow the central bank to create a digital currency.”