Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon • Hacker News Board

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.

What were your number 2 and 3 issues, out of curiosity?

Were there any accompanying policies that you would say, "despite promising to free Ross Ulbricht, I don't think accompanying Policy X would be worth it?"

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#94

Post by wkat4242 » Wed, Jan 22, 2025, 1:19 AM UTC

hypeatei wrote: post #52

This is a rare Trump win. There are many things to criticize him for, but this pardon isn't one of them. I don't think anyone, after researching this case, would be okay with the life sentence handed down to Ross.

Life no but probably more than he did in the end. He was really turning into a syndicate boss. The deep ars technica article was pretty depressing.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#95

Post by ggm » Wed, Jan 22, 2025, 1:19 AM UTC

I don't see how this benefits the American economy, jobs, or national security. I do see that for a cohort of people in the Libertarian community this was held to be a central Tenet: Ulbricht was their "hostage" just as the Proud Boys thought their leader was.

But, I can't see how this becomes net beneficial in Congress, or in the wider economy. At best it's providing lower friction movement of goods and services. They tend not to go to Federal Tax collecting exchanges, so I cannot for the life of me see how this helps the exchequer, but maybe thats the point?

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#96

Post by macinjosh » Wed, Jan 22, 2025, 1:19 AM UTC

bb88 wrote: post #68

Genuine question: Of all the people to pardon, why him?

Trump promised to do this at the Libertarian Party convention. This case is very important to the libertarian crowd. He is a martyr for many of their ideals. After Trump was so well received at the convention the LP, recently taken over by the right faction of the party, put forth a candidate specifically chosen to not get votes so that members would vote for Trump. Trump seems to be a man of his word.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#97

Post by heavyset_go » Wed, Jan 22, 2025, 1:20 AM UTC

fzeroracer wrote: post #61

[flagged]

> But it seems they don't have a problem with someone running an illegal underground drug smuggling network because...?

People have a soft spot for enterprising wunderkinds of certain demographics, even if he wasn't actually a kid when he start SR.

A good boy like Ross doesn't belong in prison, but the person arrested for smoking crack does, is a common sentiment.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#98

Post by qqqult » Wed, Jan 22, 2025, 1:20 AM UTC

mbStavola wrote: post #3

Without any snark, why? What's the motivation?

It was one of the promises he made at a Bitcoin conference he attended a few months ago. It has been a popular issue in crypto circles

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#99

Post by IncreasePosts » Wed, Jan 22, 2025, 1:20 AM UTC

bb88 wrote: post #68

Genuine question: Of all the people to pardon, why him?

Presumably musk pushed for it. Not sure who else in/near the administration would even have him on their radar

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#100

Post by llamaimperative » Wed, Jan 22, 2025, 1:20 AM UTC

qdhazEWT wrote: post #15

Trump refused to pardon Assange and Snowden. I suppose he has priorities. In 2021, presumably during SBF's (big Democrat donor) FTX scam, Trump thought that Bitcoin was a scam: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57392734 Now he is best friends with the "crypto", AI, and H1B bros.

> “All my Republican donations were dark,” [SBF] said, referring to political donations that are not publicly disclosed in FEC filings. “The reason was not for regulatory reasons, it’s because reporters freak the f—k out if you donate to Republicans. They’re all super liberal, and I didn’t want to have that fight.”

> Given that he donated nearly $40 million to Democrats in the 2022 election cycle—and he admitted to giving an equal amount to Republicans—his total political contributions may have actually been around $80 million.

https://time.com/6241262/sam-bankman-fried-political-donatio...