Who is Ross Ulbricht, the ‘Silk Road’ founder pardoned by Trump?

On his second day back in office, President Donald Trump issued a full pardon to Ross Ulbrichtthe founder of dark-web marketplace Silk Road. Trump had promised to free Ulbricht as part of a series of promises made to the cryptocurrency community while on the campaign trail.

The president announced the move in a post on his Truth Social platform, saying he had called Ulbricht’s mother to inform her it was his “pleasure” to sign the pardon “in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly.” Libertarian activists have long argued that Ulbricht’s sentence was an example of government overreach.