How Trump was persuaded to pardon an online drug kingpin

In December 2023, Libertarian Party Chair Angela McArdle endorsed Donald J. Flew to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump.

Ms. McDill said in an interview that Mr. Trump wanted to figure out how to win over liberal voters, a constituency that helped him reclaim the presidency. He had an answer: Free Ross Ulbricht, a Bitcoin pioneer who was sentenced to life in prison in 2015 for running what was then the world’s largest online drug marketplace. Mr. Ulbricht was considered a liberal hero for creating an illegal market outside the reach of the government.

“I like to free people,” Mr. Trump said, according to Ms. McArdle. Five months later, she hosted him at the Libertarian Party’s National Convention, where he announced on stage that, if elected to the presidency, he would oust Mr. Ulbricht.

On Tuesday, a day after his inauguration, Mr. Trump made good on that promise. He called Mr. Ulbricht’s mother, Lynn Ulbricht, to personally tell her that he had granted a full pardon to her son, now 40. Post On Truth Social, Mr. Trump said the decision was “out of respect for him and the Libertarian movement that supported me so strongly.”

Mr Ulbricht’s pardon was not an obvious agenda item for Mr Trump. Unlike some 1,600 people who received pardons or commutations this week for their involvement on January 6, Mr. Ulbricht had little direct connection to the president. But the move was long in the works, after more than a decade of activism by Mr. Ulbricht’s supporters — including cryptocurrency investors, libertarian politicians and especially Ms. Ulbricht, who was a vocal proponent for her son’s release. .

Many of them have enjoyed an unusual level of access to Mr. Trump. As it became clear last year that Mr. Trump would be the Republican nominee, he waged a behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign to secure a pardon—including promising to raise money for his re-election bid—that became a case study. How a special interest group can mobilize to influence the President.

Ms. McArdle said she was put in touch with Mr. Trump by Richard Grenell, one of his longtime advisers and a former acting director of national intelligence, who suggested she have a business conversation with Mr. Trump. Treat conversations like this.

“Rick was like, ‘He’s a deal-maker, Angela,'” she said. “Don’t be afraid to ask for something.”

Mr Grenell, Ms Ulbricht and the Trump administration did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Ulbricht’s pardon shows that “if you have a concentrated base of people around Trump, you have a very good chance at a pardon,” said Dan Richman, a former federal prosecutor who taught at Columbia Law School. Teaches. “There are problems with the pardon system working this 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 access only through a special browser. Authorities have said that Silk Road facilitated more than 1.5 million transactions, generating more than $200 million in revenue from the sale of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and other drugs. Users transacted anonymously with Bitcoin, then a nascent cryptocurrency, and could post Amazon-style product ratings.

In 2013, the FBI arrested Mr. Ulbricht in a San Francisco library and charged him with running Silk Road. In court, prosecutors presented evidence that Mr. Ulbricht had also solicited the murders of people he threatened for business, although he was never tried for murder-for-hire and was not Indications that any murder took place.

Prosecutors said in court that at least six deaths were attributed to drugs purchased on the Silk Road. A federal judge in the Southern District of New York, where the case was tried, called Mr. Ulbricht “the kingpin of a worldwide digital drug-trafficking enterprise” whose actions have been deeply destructive to “our social fabric.” Were. In 2015, he received a life sentence for drug distribution, money laundering and other charges, and was eventually moved to a federal prison in Arizona.

Punishment hit some legal experts As in harsh. It also attracted protests from Libertarians, who opposed harsher drug penalties, and crypto enthusiasts, who saw Mr. Ulbricht as a pioneer.

Silk Road “onboarded a million people to Bitcoin,” said David Bailey, chief executive of the news publication Bitcoin Magazine, who campaigned for Mr. Ulbricht’s release. “He represents many of the ideological views of our community.”

From prison, Mr. Ulbricht made his connection to Bitcoin. In October 2018, he sent a letter to his mother celebrating the 10th anniversary of the cryptocurrency’s founding and compared himself to a “proud parent” of the technology.

“I feel like I’m a father in prison who can’t be there to help raise his child,” he wrote in the letter, which was later Published by Bitcoin Magazine,

On social media accounts maintained by his family, Mr. Ulbricht also shared artwork, updates on his prison gardening and ideas on new techniques. The accounts posted links to online petitions asking for clemency, tagging Mr. Trump and members of the Trump family.

Behind the scenes, Ms. Ulbricht worked to popularize the slogan “Free Ross,” which becomes a rallying cry at crypto conferences. He also hopes to reach out to Mr Trump’s inner circle, along with Republican politicians and far-right influencers.

After losing the 2020 election, Mr Trump Considered freeing Mr. UlbrichtAccording to financial forms, at least one lobbyist was paid $22,500 to help secure his release. But Mr Trump left office without taking action.

“Higher expectations, greater disappointment, and our expectations were high for an uproar at the sentencing,” Mr. Ulbricht’s family. Posted on social media in January 2021.

The new Republican presidential campaign offered a new opportunity.

In 2023, Ms. Ulbricht renewed her push to connect with influential Republicans, including Vivek Ramaswamy, who is running for president, two people close to her said. Mr. Ramaswami, who did not respond to a request for comment, committed to freeing Mr. Ulbricht if and when elected. spoke openly About meeting your mother.

Then in late 2023, Ms. McArdle was contacted by Mr. Grenell, who asked for advice on the Libertarian vote on Mr. Trump’s behalf, she said. Soon she was on a plane to Florida to meet Mr. Trump.

At the meeting, Ms. McArdle told Mr. Trump that Mr. Ulbricht was the victim of prosecutorial overreach and a biased criminal justice system, echoing complaints the former president has made since leaving office.

“It’s the same court stuff in New York that’s giving you a hard time,” she said he told her.

Last year, Mr. Trump and his staff also met with Mr. Bailey and other representatives of Bitcoin Magazine, who pushed for Mr. Ulbricht’s release. Tracy Hoyos-Lopez, who has worked for the magazine, is Said This introduction to the public was organized in 2016 by Paul Manafort, Mr Trump’s campaign chairman. (Ms. Hoyos-Lopez is the daughter of Hector Hoyos, a friend and former business partner of Mr. Manafort.)

On social media, Mr. Bailey announced He planned to raise a “$100M war chest for the Trump campaign”. He also went to Mar-a-Lago in June, he said in an interview, where he presented Mr. Trump with a letter from Lynn Ulbricht.

By then, Mr. Trump had already vowed to free Mr. Ulbricht at the Libertarian Party convention. He doubled up Building on that pledge in July at a conference in Nashville hosted by Bitcoin Magazine, he said he would commute Mr. Ulbricht’s sentence — allowing him to walk free, but without exonerating him. Around that time, Mr. Trump also met privately with Ms. Ulbricht, said Ms. McArdle, who was briefed on the meeting.

Ms. McArdle has faced Shock From other libertarians for his dealings with Mr. Trump. But she was still in contact with the new administration last week, and requested that Mr. Trump grant Mr. Ulbricht a full pardon, not just a commutation. “Promises, promises, promises made,” a Trump staffer emailed him, according to a copy of the message seen by The New York Times.

On Tuesday night, Ms. McArdle, Mr. Bailey and Ms. Hoyos-Lopez gathered in a livestream on X to wait for updates. Mr. Bailey told the audience that Ms. Ulbricht was in Arizona, preparing for her son’s release.

Within hours of the pardon, an account on X controlled by Mr. Ulbricht’s family posted a photo of him Leaving the prison with a small plant and a sack of stuff.

“Freedom!!!!” the post said.

Kenneth P. vogel Contribution reporting. Susan C. bc Contribution Research.