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Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

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Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#611

Post by 2-3-7-43-1807 »

DrBenCarson wrote: post #408
wolfgang42 wrote: post #173

Tangentially related: I had the disconcerting experience of reading a Wired article about his arrest[1] while unknowingly sitting about six feet from the spot where he was apprehended. When I read that the FBI agents had stopped at Bello Coffee while preparing their stakeout, I thought, huh, interesting coincidence, I just had a coffee there. Then Ulbricht walked into the public library and sat down at the table dire…

Maybe the single most confusing comment ever

also single most irrelevant comment ever

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#613

Post by ernst_klim »

dimator wrote: post #113
macinjosh wrote: post #89

I am happy to see that Trump is a man of his word. I voted for him just because of this campaign promise. I would have voted for almost anyone who promised this.

This one act was more important than the Paris agreement?

If Paris agreements cannot prevent tariffs on Chinese EV and Chinese solar panels, which are basically battling climate change on Chinese money, these agreements don't justify the cost of paper they are written on.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#614

Post by tallanvor »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #559

We need pardon reform. I’d argue the President should not be allowed to issue pardons that are: (1) Preëmptive ( i.e. absent conviction); (2) To himself, his current or former Cabinet members, or to any of the foregoing’s current or former spouses or children or grandchildren (or their spouses); or (3) Issued after the presidential election in the final year of their term. Furthermore, pardons for violent offences or…

While I would tend to agree with the first one, and preventing someone from pardoning himself or herself, the rest is a bit much. But it's a moot point anyway. At this point amending the constitution is virtually impossible.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#616

Post by JumpCrisscross »

tallanvor wrote: post #614
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #559

We need pardon reform. I’d argue the President should not be allowed to issue pardons that are: (1) Preëmptive ( i.e. absent conviction); (2) To himself, his current or former Cabinet members, or to any of the foregoing’s current or former spouses or children or grandchildren (or their spouses); or (3) Issued after the presidential election in the final year of their term. Furthermore, pardons for violent offences or…

While I would tend to agree with the first one, and preventing someone from pardoning himself or herself, the rest is a bit much. But it's a moot point anyway. At this point amending the constitution is virtually impossible.

> the rest is a bit much

The Cabinet or the lame-duck pardons?

Cabinet members are close to the President and in commanding positions of authority; if they’re scared of a law they should work to change it.

Lame ducks, on the other hand, aren’t subject to the single veneer of a check on Presidential pardons: popular outrage. Limiting it in that span, when a President is unaccountable, and where we have ample history of silliness, seems warranted.

Note that I’m not proposing restricting commutations in any of those cases. (I suppose we should add a clause prohibiting the President from preëmptive commutations, too.)

> amending the constitution is virtually impossible

Not true. We’re probably closer to the end of our Constitutional stasis than at any time in our lives.

Hell, you might be able to ram something like this through today if you added a clause that nullifies past pardons per those standards.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#617

Post by npteljes »

sidcool wrote: post #270

I'm indifferent to him being pardoned. But people saying he didn't deserve any punishment seems weird to me.

Me too. 12 years seems like enough, especially considering the sentence lengths other people get. If he tries again, they can catch him again. But running an illegal marketplace with clearly allowing whatever goes, and not receiving any punishment for it? That is wild.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#618

Post by cbg0 »

kernal wrote: post #534
mrandish wrote: post #181

This is wonderful. I've never argued that Ross shouldn't have served time but it's always been clear his prosecution and sentencing were excessive and unjust. The prosecutors asked for a 20 year sentence, which seemed disproportionate given the sentencing guidelines for a first-time offender and the non-violent charges he was convicted of. But the judge sentenced Ross to TWO life sentences plus 40 years - without the…

> I don't credit Trump in any way for doing "the right thing" or even having a principled position regarding Ross' case. This is probably the most ridiculous comment in this thread. Trump even spoke at the Libertarian convention and specifically mentioned how unjust the sentence was and that he would pardon Ross as one of his campaign promises and he delivered. Trump saw parallels between the attack on Ross and the p…

> Trump saw parallels between the attack on Ross and the politically motivated law fare the democrats attacked him with.

How exactly was it politically motivated law fare?

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#619

Post by cbg0 »

l0ng1nu5 wrote: post #14
yuppiepuppie wrote: post #8

Wasn’t he in jail for hiring a contract killer? I’m all for the freeing him of his crimes when it comes to his crypto anarchic philosophy. But I find it hard to pardon someone for contract killing essentially. Also I’m not an apologist for the FBIs handling of this case either.

I haven't reviewed the info for a while but it was pretty clearly entrapment as I recall.

It was not entrapment. There is mention of undercover purchases and a controlled delivery by law enforcement, but these are not entrapment. Most of the evidence came from his own laptop.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#620

Post by npteljes »

_yb2s wrote: post #49
maplant wrote: post #5

I had no idea this was a campaign promise. Why? I don’t understand.

Trump went around to a huge number of niche communities and promised to fix their core concerns in exchange for their support. The crypto and libertarian communities are obsessed with freeing Ulbricht. It was honestly a brilliant strategy, and probably the reason he won. Ironic that an authoritarian fascist was able to get elected by enlisting the help of anti-authoritarian communities with a single issue promise.

>Trump went around to a huge number of niche communities and promised to fix their core concerns in exchange for their support

Very interesting insight, thank you for sharing it. Do you happen to know other examples as well?

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