Trump Vows To ‘Save’ Silk Road Creator Ulbricht From Life Sentence 

US presidential aspirant Donald Trump has reaffirmed his pledge to save Ross Ulbricht, the founder of darknet marketplace Silk Road, from a life sentence.

In a statement on Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump declared, “I WILL SAVE ROSS ULBRICHT!” Trump’s statement was in response to Ulbricht’s post stating that he has entered his 12th year in prison and intends to make the most of his time.

Ulbricht’s Downfall 

Ulbricht, aka the “Dread Pirate Roberts,” created and operated Silk Road from 2011 until his arrest in 2013. In 2015, he was sentenced to life in prison in connection with his operation and ownership of Silk Road. Federal prosecutors stated that he “deliberately” ran Silk Road as an online criminal marketplace to buy and sell drugs and other illegal goods and services “anonymously” and outside the reach of law enforcement. 

Ulbricht designed Silk Road to provide anonymity by concealing its users’ identities using the Tor network. Moreover, the site used a Bitcoin-based payment system to facilitate commerce and conceal the identities and locations of the users transmitting and receiving funds through it. 

Silk Road, shut down shortly after Ulbricht’s arrest, is known as one of the early adopters of Bitcoin. Upon his arrest, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seized 144,336 BTC from a shared digital wallet on Ulbricht’s laptop. According to investigations, Silk Road generated hundreds of millions of dollars in sales and around $13 million worth of Bitcoin in commissions.

Not the First Time

This isn’t the first time Trump has aired his support for Ulbricht. At a Libertarian National Convention in May, he vowed to commute Ulbricht’s life sentence if voted back to power.

At the time, Ulbricht responded in a tweet, saying: “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you… After 11 years in prison, it is hard to express how I feel at this moment.”

However, the crypto community remains divided on Trump’s claims. Some see his statements as a strategic move to court Libertarians and crypto voters.

Libertarians and crypto supporters have described Ulbricht’s life sentence as overly punitive and an attack on decentralization.