President Donald Trump Considering Pardon for Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht Serving Life In Prison

President Donald Trump is weighing granting clemency to Ross Ulbricht, the founder of darknet Silk Road.

The Daily Beast first reported the development, citing three people familiar with the matter who said the White House counsel’s office has documents related to Ulbricht’s case under review.

Trump has been reportedly made aware of the situation recently, and he has expressed some sympathy for Ulbricht’s situation.

The president is considering Ulbricht among others for his next round of pardons before the January 20 inauguration of Joe Biden.

A petition for “Clemency for Ross Ulbricht” on Change.Org has received 365,800 signatures in support.

The cryptocurrency industry is excited about this development as Jake Chervinsky, General Counsel at Compound Finance, wrote on Twitter, “No non-violent offender should spend life in prison, but Ross is a special case. His unconstitutional sentence must not stand.”

“Ross Ulbricht's sentence was grossly unjust. The judge gave him life in prison based on unproven charges that were later dismissed. When he argued his constitutional rights were violated, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case,” said Chervinksy. “@realDonaldTrump, you can fix this. Free Ross.”

I am now a Trump supporter and believe there was widespread voter fraud that stole the election from this intelligent and wonderful man https://t.co/5oHa5B7otJ

— KING CO฿IE (@CryptoCobain) December 16, 2020

Recently, there has been speculation that Trump will pardon WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange only to be put to an end just hours after. The incident occurred days after Stella Morris, Assange’s partner, appealed to Trump on Twitter on Thanksgiving to pardon him.

Australian MP George Christensen has also asked Trump to pardon the WikiLeaks founder.

People on Twitter have also been appealing for the pardon of whistleblower and former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden.