Overview

The Pardoning of Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht refers to the January 2025 pardoning of Ross Ulbricht (also known as Dread Pirate Roberts), the creator of the illegal dark web marketplace Silk Road. U.S. President Donald Trump pardoned Ulbricht on the first day of his second term, fulfilling a promise he made at the Libertarian National Convention ahead of the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election. Ulbricht had served 11 years of his life sentence. The pardoning sparked viral discourse and reactions on social media in the following weeks with many celebrating his release and others condemning it.

Background

On October 1st, 2013, Ross William Ulbricht was arrested in the science fiction section of a public library in San Francisco with his laptop opened on the Silk Road, an illegal dark web marketplace, under the username Dread Pirate Roberts, the username of the site's creator.

In 2015, he was then sentenced to life in prison in a Manhattan courthouse, convicted on seven charges related to the distribution of narcotics, money laundering and computer hacking, as well as a "continuing criminal enterprise" statute often reserved for the heads of organized crime.^[1][2]

Ahead of the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election, in May 2024, then-Republican candidate Donald Trump attended the Libertarian National Convention and delivered a speech. He was reportedly booed when he took the stage. He later said, "If you vote for me, on day one, I will commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht," and received cheers from the crowd.^[3]

Trump later won the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election, and after being inaugurated on January 20th, 2025, he posted to Truth Social ^[4] on January 21st, announcing that he "just called the mother of Ross William Ulbricht to let her know that in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly, it was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son, Ross." He continued, "The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me. He was given two life sentences, plus 40 years. Ridiculous!" The post received over 34,300 likes in a day (shown below).

Soon after on January 21st, 2025, Ross Ulbricht was freed from an Arizona prison following Trump's announcement.^[5] A photo of Ulbricht leaving prison with a plant was shared on social media (shown below), like in a post shared by X^[6] user @WatcherGuru that received over 24,000 likes in a day.

Online Reactions

News of Ross Ulbricht's pardoning spread on social media in the hours after President Trump's announcement. For instance, on January 21st, 2025, X^[7] user @TheSigmaAncap posted a meme that joked about Ulbricht being condemned to 20 years of Libertarian podcast appearances following his release, gaining over 8,400 likes in a day (shown below).

Others reacted to the photo of Ulbricht holding a plant, like X^[8] user @MarmotRespecter on January 21st, who quote tweeted it, writing, "Taking ur prison plant home is such a vibe," earning over 11,000 likes in a day (shown below).

The photo of Ulbricht with his plant was also shared to the subreddit /r/pics on January 21st, 2025, by Redditor^[12] JK-Rofling, receiving over 32,000 upvotes in a day.

Outside of memes, others debated the ethical ramifications of Ulbricht's release. For instance, on January 21st, 2025, X^[9] user @timjacobwise was critical of President Trump, writing, "So Trump has previously said drug dealers should be put to death. But he's freeing Ross Ulbricht. Because he didn't mean rich white drug dealers. Because he's a racist," gaining over 2,300 likes in a day (shown below).

Also on January 21st, X^[10] user @RonFilipkowski tweeted a screenshot of President Trump's original Truth Social post in which he reportedly misspelled Ulbricht's name as "Ulbright."^[2] @RonFilipkowski believed that Trump didn't know who Ulbricht was months prior and only freed him to win the Libertarian vote. His tweet received over 5,300 likes in a day (shown below).

Others celebrated Ulbricht's release, like X^[11] user @LilithLovett on January 21st, 2025, who referenced the Worst Person You Know Made a Great Point meme concerning President Trump, gaining over 1,200 likes in a day (shown below).

Ulbricht's release was also discussed on /r/Libertarian when Redditor^[13] Pineapple_Sasa shared a screenshot of Trump's Truth Social post, gaining over 2,500 upvotes in a day. Redditors in the comments largely reacted positively. Others, like Redditors^[14][15] PonyBoyLong and nekohumin stated that President Trump should also pardon Edward Snowden and Julian Assange.

Developments

Ross Ulbricht's Response Video

On January 23rd, 2025, Ross Ulbricht posted a video to his X^[16] account @RealRossU, acting as his first official statement post-release. The video was captioned, " Thank you so much, President Trump, for giving me this amazing blessing." In the video, he said, "Let it be known, Donald Trump is a man of his word." The video received over 7.6 million views and 199,000 likes in a day (shown below).

pic.twitter.com/pbqRh9spnk

— Ross Ulbricht (@RealRossU) January 24, 2025

Multiple internet users reacted to the video, like a quote tweet^[17] posted by Paul Skallas, aka Lindy Man, on January 24th, who said, "Pledging your undying fealty to the emperor who spared your life. Lindy," gaining over 5,100 likes in a few hours (shown below).

Various Reactions

Search Interest

External References