Silk Road Creator Ross Ulbricht Expects Trump to Keep His Word—and Release Him

While handing down the sentence, the judge was also allowed to consider the manslaughter charge, even though they were never charged in the case. “Until the Supreme Court rules otherwise, related but uncharged cases of this nature can be considered and considered by judges regularly,” Richman said.

Ulbricht has never fully acknowledged the damage caused by the massive Silk Road drug trade, including heroin and other drugs, and has shown little remorse for his actions in his public tweets, said Jared Der-Yeghiayan, a former Homeland Security investigator. agent who infiltrated the Silk Road as part of the case against Ulbricht.

“The idea of ​​him being released doesn’t bother me at all,” said Der-Yeghiayan, who now works as head of strategic intelligence at cryptocurrency tracking firm Chainalysis. “I worry if there is an opinion that he did nothing wrong, who does not accept the facts of the case.”

Since Ulbricht has already spent 11 years in prison, however, the question that remains is whether that case merits prison time. While Ulbricht’s tough sentence may work in a strict technical sense, said Leeza Garber, a law professor at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, in knotty cases like these, the legal questions cannot be neatly separated from the moral and political.

“Just because something makes sense, that doesn’t mean it’s right,” Garber said. “We have complex and conflicting views on the war on drugs and the use of prisons in this country. Combine that with the idea that this crime has happened in part online, and it gets really dirty. It is difficult to imagine this combination of problems.”

Other prison reform advocates, some of whom support Ulbricht’s clemency bid, believe sentencing laws should change. They think the emphasis should be on rehabilitation rather than retribution—and that amnesty should be restored to the federal criminal justice system. They hope Ulbricht’s release may act as a catalyst.

“Ross has served more than enough time. He has been a model prisoner. He is the first, he is a non-violent criminal. He poses no risk to public safety,” said Alice Johnson, CEO of the justice reform foundation Taking Action for Good, who spent two decades in prison for drug trafficking before his life sentence was commuted by Trump in 2018. “I believe that Ross’s case will pave the way for many others who have been given these unfairly harsh sentences to return home.”