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Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

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Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#651

Post by vasco »

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…

The numbers of pardons granted per president is interesting: https://www.justice.gov/pardon/clemency-statistics

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#652

Post by WrongAssumption »

ropejumper wrote: post #545
fbnlsr wrote: post #522

This might be a minor thing, but does anyone know if a full pardon will allow him to use an electronic device or access the internet? Often times, people convicted of crimes related to an online activity are forbidden this right, and I wonder if that's the case for him, and if so, what his life would be in this day and age.

With a full pardon it's as if he never did anything in the first place.

That’s an expungement, which is not a power the president has. He can grant a pardon, which is forgiveness, but does not erase that a crime was committed.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#653

Post by pwdisswordfishz »

wolfgang42 wrote: post #278
syspec wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, it went over my head a bit, you read about his arrest while he was being arrested?

He was being arrested in the article, not IRL. When I say “Ulbricht walked into the public library and sat down at the table directly in front of me” I mean that I read > He went... past the periodicals and reference desk, beyond the romance novels, and settled in at a circular table near science fiction, on the second floor... in a corner, with a view out the window and his back toward the wall. and realized that I…

> He was being arrested in the article, not IRL.

So the article lied that he was arrested?

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#654

Post by pooper »

offsign wrote: post #487
rappatic wrote: post #164

I think his original sentence was absolutely deserved—even though the charge of hiring a contract killer to assassinate his business competition may have been dropped, I think it's clear he did many things in the same vein. Even if you support his original pursuit of a free and open online marketplace, I think most people would agree he took it a bridge too far in the end. That said, I do think he absolutely deserved…

"he took it a bridge too far" is a massive trivialization. The guy operated a marketplace for illegal goods in order to enrich himself. The illegality wasn't just incidental, it was literally his business model -- by flouting the law, he enjoyed massive market benefit (minimal competition, lack of regulation, high margins etc) by exploiting the arbitrage that the rest of us follow the rules. Said a different way, he…

》 we shouldn't have bailed him out.

I don't have a horse in this race but the first thing that comes to my mind when I hear "we shouldn't have bailed him out" is silicon valley bank and its depositors. That to me was the biggest show of hypocrisy by silicon valley.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#655

Post by jjallen »

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…

But he’s only served a tiny fraction of what you say was an unjust sentence. So the jury’s still out as to whether he’s served enough time. Other hard drug dealers get way more time than Ross has served.

Its astonishing that granting pardons to drug dealers and attempted murderers is something Trump sees as one of the more urgent matters affecting the most powerful nation on Earth.

I wish this weren’t true.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#656

Post by mabster »

oharapj wrote: post #650
carlmr wrote: post #549

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding your edit. The first paragraph kind of lines up with you reading about it. But the second one is kind of confusing, and I think it's because "then" can mean two different things here. You meant "at the time of his arrest". If you casually read it without cross referencing the first paragraphs context, you might think it means "as I was sitting there". And there's nothing in the following sentences that corr…

His writing employs a little bit of poetry in order to capture his feeling. Not all writing benefits from being as clear and bland as possible. HN should probably read some non-fiction books from time to time

Agreed. It was well written.

The focus wasn't on the exact timeline and facts of the situation. It was on what it felt like as he read the piece.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#657

Post by dools »

This pardon is corrupt. Ross' parents donated to Trump and he pardoned their son as a favour.

Whether or not you think he deserved the prison time, the problem here is how utterly brazen Trump is in accepting bribes.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#659

Post by jgilias »

dools wrote: post #657

This pardon is corrupt. Ross' parents donated to Trump and he pardoned their son as a favour. Whether or not you think he deserved the prison time, the problem here is how utterly brazen Trump is in accepting bribes.

Trump doesn’t care about Ross’ parents or their donations much.

What he did care about were libertarian votes. There was a deal that libertarians will support Trump if he promises to free Ross. This is on record, you can find it.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#660

Post by rnernento »

In 2021, Ulbricht's prosecutors and defense agreed that Ulbricht would relinquish any ownership of a newly discovered fund of 50,676 Bitcoin (worth nearly $5.35 billion in 2025) seized from a hacker in November 2021.[78] The Bitcoin had been stolen from Silk Road in 2013 and Ulbricht had been unsuccessful in getting them back. The U.S. government traced and seized the stolen Bitcoin. Ulbricht and the government agreed the fund would be used to pay off Ulbricht's $183 million debt in his criminal case, while the Department of Justice would take custody of the Bitcoin.[79][80]
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