Donald J. Trump has pledged to commute Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht's life sentence to life in prison if he is re-elected president.
Trump said in his speech Saturday night at the Freedom National Convention in Washington, DC:
“If you vote for me, on Day 1 I will reduce Ross Ulbricht's sentence to one with time served.”
“He has served 11 years, we will bring him home.”
Hours before those comments, Trump took to social media to praise the cryptocurrency industry, writing on Truth Social:
“I am very positive and open to crypto companies and all things related to this new and growing industry. Our country must take the lead in this field. There is no second place.”
Trump added that President JOE Biden “wants [the cryptocurrency industry] to die slowly and painfully. That will never happen to me!”
During his evening speech, Trump's pledge to release Ulbricht received loud cheers from the assembled audience, many of whom held signs reading “Free Ross ”.
In 2015, Ulbricht was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences plus 40 years – effectively life without the possibility of parole – for creating and operating Silk Road.
The now-defunct darknet market was used to anonymously buy and sell goods, but was largely used for drugs.
Silk Road operated from 2011 to 2013 and is considered the first real-world use case of Bitcoin .
Ulbricht has become a martyr to many in the cryptocurrency community, as well as to many Libertarians, who see Ulbricht's draconian sentence as an act of political overreach. government and violate his constitutional rights.
In 2018, the Liberal Party called on then-President Trump to pardon Ulbricht.
Before Trump's presidency ended in January 2021, he pardoned 143 individuals – pardoning 73, including Ripple board member Ken Kurson, and commuting the sentences of 70 others .
He did not offer clemency to Ulbricht, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange or Edward Snowden, who leaked details of the US surveillance program to US journalist Glenn Greenwald.
Trump also made more general comments about cryptocurrency at the conference, telling attendees that he will “stop JOE Biden's crypto crushing campaign – we will stop it.”
“I will make sure that the future of crypto and the future of Bitcoin is created in the United States and not overseas. I will support the right to self-parent children."
“To the nation's 50 million cryptocurrency holders, I say this: I will keep Elizabeth Warren and her ilk away from your Bitcoin, and I will never allow the creation of another Central bank digital currency.”
Trump has been significantly sympathetic to cryptocurrency in recent months, making several publicly supportive comments and becoming the first major party presidential candidate to accept cryptocurrency donations. electronic money.
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