In December 2023, Libertarian Party Leader Angela McArdle flew to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Donald J. Trump.
Mr. McArdle said in an interview that Mr. Trump wanted to know how to win over Libertarian voters who he believes could help him regain the presidency. she had the answer. Bitcoin pioneer Free Ross Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison in 2015 for creating Silk Road, the world's largest online drug market. Mr. Ulbricht was seen as a libertarian hero who built an illegal market beyond government control.
McArdle said Trump “loves to set people free.” Five months later, she invited him to the Libertarian Party's national convention, where he announced on stage that he would release Mr. Ulbricht if he was elected president.
On Tuesday, the day after taking office, Trump made good on that promise. Trump called Ulbricht's mother, Lynne Ulbricht, and directly informed her that she had granted a full pardon to her son, who is now 40 years old. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the decision was “in honor of her and hers.” The libertarian movement has supported me very strongly. ”
Pardoning Mr. Ulbricht was not an obvious topic for Mr. Trump. Unlike the roughly 1,600 people who received pardons or commutations this week for their involvement in the January 6 riot, Mr. Ulbricht had few direct ties to the president. But the move comes after more than a decade of activism by cryptocurrency investors, liberal politicians, and Ulbricht's supporters, including Mr. Ulbricht, who has been particularly vocal about his son's release. It was planned.
Many of them have enjoyed an unusual level of access to Mr. Trump. Last year, when it became clear that Trump would be the Republican nominee, Trump lobbied behind the scenes to secure a pardon, including pledging to raise money for the presidential campaign, and the case It became a research. How special interest groups can be mobilized to influence the president.
McArdle said she was contacted by Richard Grenell, one of Trump's longtime advisers and former acting director of national intelligence, who suggested she treat the conversation with Trump like a business negotiation. It is said that he did.
“Rick was like, 'Angela, he's a dealmaker,'” she says. “Don't be afraid to ask for something.”
Grenell, Ulbricht and the Trump administration did not respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Ulbricht's pardon “shows that if you have a lot of people around President Trump, you're very likely to get a pardon,” said Dan, a former federal prosecutor who teaches at Columbia Law School.・Mr. Richman says. “There is a problem with an amnesty system that works that way.”
Mr. Ulbricht launched Silk Road in 2011 and turned it into one of the most popular outposts of the so-called dark web, a hidden corner of the Internet that people can only access through special browsers. Authorities say Silk Road facilitated more than 1.5 million transactions and generated more than $200 million in revenue from the sale of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and other drugs. Users could anonymously trade Bitcoin, a then-nascent cryptocurrency, and post Amazon-style product reviews.
In 2013, the FBI arrested Mr. Ulbricht at a San Francisco library and charged him with running Silk Road. In court, prosecutors presented evidence that Mr. Ulbricht also commissioned the killings of people he deemed a threat to his business, but he was never tried for commissioned murder and there was no evidence that the killings had taken place. There wasn't.
Prosecutors said in court that at least six deaths were caused by drugs purchased on Silk Road. The federal judge in the Southern District of New York who heard the case called Mr. Ulbricht “the central figure in a global digital drug trafficking enterprise” whose actions were “extremely destructive to the fabric of our society.” said. In 2015, he was sentenced to life in prison for drug distribution, money laundering and other charges, and was eventually transferred to a federal prison in Arizona.
The punishment struck some legal experts as harsh. There were also protests from libertarians who oppose stricter drug penalties and crypto enthusiasts who see Mr. Ulbricht as a pioneer.
David Bailey, CEO of Bitcoin Magazine, a news publication that campaigned for Ulbricht's release, said Silk Road “led a million people to Bitcoin.” “He represents many ideological views in our community.”
Ulbricht highlighted his connection to Bitcoin from prison. In October 2018, he sent a letter to his mother celebrating the 10th anniversary of cryptocurrencies, comparing himself to the technology's “proud parent.”
“But I think I am an estranged father in prison, unable to help raise my child,” he wrote in a letter later published in Bitcoin Magazine.
On social media accounts maintained by his family, Ulbricht also shared artwork, updates on prison gardening, and thoughts on new technology. These accounts posted links to online petitions asking for clemency, tagging Trump and his family.
Behind the scenes, Ulbricht worked to popularize the slogan “Free Roth”, which became the watchword at crypto conferences. She also networked with Republican politicians and far-right influencers, hoping to gain access to Trump's inner circle.
After losing the 2020 election, Trump considered releasing Ulbricht, and at least one lobbyist was paid $22,500 to secure his release, according to financial filings. But Trump left office without taking any action.
In January 2021, Ulbricht's family posted on social media: “The higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment; our hopes for a reduced sentence were extremely high.”
The new Republican presidential campaign brought new opportunities.
Mr. Ulbricht has renewed ties to influential Republicans, including Vivek Ramaswamy, who was running for president in 2023, two people close to Mr. Ulbricht said. Ramaswamy did not respond to requests for comment, but promised to free Ulbricht if elected and spoke candidly about meeting with his mother.
Then, in late 2023, McArdle was contacted by Grenell and asked for advice on winning Libertarian votes on Trump's behalf, she said. She immediately boarded a plane to Florida to meet Mr. Trump.
During the meeting, McArdle told Trump that Ulbricht was a victim of prosecutorial overreach and a biased criminal justice system, echoing complaints Ulbricht has made since leaving office.
“It's the same court issues in New York that are giving you a hard time,” she reportedly told him.
Last year, Trump and his staff also met with Bailey and other representatives from Bitcoin Magazine, who called for Ulbricht's release. Tracy Hoyos López, who worked for the magazine, said publicly that the introduction was arranged by Trump's campaign chairman Paul Manafort in 2016 (Hoyos López was a friend and former business partner. Manafort (daughter of Hector Hoyos). )
Bailey announced on social media that he plans to raise “a $100 million war chest for the Trump campaign.” He said in an interview that he also visited Mar-a-Lago in June, where he gave Trump a letter from Lynn Ulbricht.
By then, Mr. Trump had already vowed at the Libertarian convention to release Mr. Ulbricht. He doubled down on that promise in July at a conference in Nashville hosted by Bitcoin Magazine, saying he would commute Ulbricht's sentence and allow him to be released without expunging his conviction. Mr. McArdle, who was briefed on the meeting, said Mr. Trump also spoke privately with Mr. Ulbricht at the time.
McArdle has faced backlash from other liberals over his dealings with Trump. But she continued to communicate with the new administration last week, urging Trump to not only commute Ulbricht's sentence but also grant him a full pardon. Trump's staff emailed her saying “promises made and promises kept,” according to a copy of the message seen by The New York Times.
On Tuesday night, Mr. McArdle, Mr. Bailey and Mr. Hoyos-Lopez gathered on X's livestream to await an update. Bailey told listeners that Ulbricht is in Arizona preparing for her son's release.
Within hours of the pardon, the X account controlled by Ulbricht's family posted a photo of him. He leaves the prison with a small plant and a bag of belongings.
“Freedom!!!” the post read.
Kenneth P. Vogel Contributed to the report. Susan C. Beachy Contributed to research.
