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Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

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Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#961

Post by vasco »

leobg wrote: post #942
vasco wrote: post #651

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Most Pardons: Clinton & Reagan (4/month). Fewest Pardons: Bush senior / Biden (1.5/month) Since Reagan.

Your math is wrong at least for Biden, I didn't recheck the others. Biden has 1736 pardons commuted or granted in 46.5 months or 37 pardons per month. I suspect all your other ones are wrong since Biden was so off. The recent trend is Biden and Obama being "off the charts" compared to the republican presidents. From my understanding this is due to weed related charges where they did mass pardonings. It's besides the point ones feelings about it, just commenting on the math.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#962

Post by stephen_g »

carlmr wrote: post #549
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…

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…

Yes, it took three reads before I worked out what the story was trying to say.

Even just adding one word "Then Ulbricht had walked into the public library and sat down at the table directly in front of me" would be enough of a clue.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#963

Post by mcv »

billiam wrote: post #915
_yb2s wrote: post #798

I feel torn about this because it seems there was good evidence for attempted murder- and I cannot understand why they never tried him for that (seemingly larger) crime. However, for the crime he was actually found guilty of, the sentence was unfair and unreasonable. It seems they unethically sentenced him for crimes he was not even ever charged with. I'd also argue he almost certainly saved a huge number of lives wi…

I just can't fathom the lack of self-awareness of people who championed Ross Ulbricht's cause, seemingly because he looks like them, codes like them, and sat in the same public library they frequent or became associated with a techno-libertarian identity. Hundreds of drug and gun dealers are sentenced every week, some certainly unjustly. Where is the outrage for them?

My impression is that a big part of the outrage is directed not at the conviction, but at the disproportionate sentence.

I'm not surprised or upset at all that he went to prison, but unless I'm missing a ton of details (and I probably am), 12 years is plenty for what he did.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#964

Post by chandler5555 »

karlzt wrote: post #911
_yb2s wrote: post #798

I feel torn about this because it seems there was good evidence for attempted murder- and I cannot understand why they never tried him for that (seemingly larger) crime. However, for the crime he was actually found guilty of, the sentence was unfair and unreasonable. It seems they unethically sentenced him for crimes he was not even ever charged with. I'd also argue he almost certainly saved a huge number of lives wi…

As for the murder part Christina Warren knows best: The murder for hire bit was always the most bullshit of all the charges. Not only were the fbi agents that were part of that later jailed for their own actions related to the case (including theft and hiding/deleting evidence), it was never real and no one was ever in danger. https://bsky.app/profile/filmgirl.bsky.social/post/3lgcck6i6...

that was only one of the 6 murder for hires

Chris Tarbell, the guy who arrested ross, talks about it on this podcast https://risky.biz/RB770/ 37:08

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#965

Post by chandler5555 »

some_random wrote: post #950
_yb2s wrote: post #798

I feel torn about this because it seems there was good evidence for attempted murder- and I cannot understand why they never tried him for that (seemingly larger) crime. However, for the crime he was actually found guilty of, the sentence was unfair and unreasonable. It seems they unethically sentenced him for crimes he was not even ever charged with. I'd also argue he almost certainly saved a huge number of lives wi…

The cybersecurity podcast Risky Business interviewed an FBI agent who was deeply involved, I'd highly recommend listening to it if you want that perspective. If I remember correctly, the agents who were investigating the murder for hire stuff were later found to have been stealing some of the bitcoin they were confiscating and the prosecutors fro the Ulbricht case decided they didn't need to bring up those charges to…

yup. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7iPp5QaHmI , starts at 36 minutes or so

the bitcoin stealing was only one of the 6 murder for hires, so even if you think thats invalidated, there were still 5 others

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#966

Post by defrost »

chandler5555 wrote: post #964
karlzt wrote: post #911

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As for the murder part Christina Warren knows best: The murder for hire bit was always the most bullshit of all the charges. Not only were the fbi agents that were part of that later jailed for their own actions related to the case (including theft and hiding/deleting evidence), it was never real and no one was ever in danger. https://bsky.app/profile/filmgirl.bsky.social/post/3lgcck6i6...

that was only one of the 6 murder for hires Chris Tarbell, the guy who arrested ross, talks about it on this podcast https://risky.biz/RB770/ 37:08

Chris Tarbell states that there are logs about 6 imaginary "murder of hire"'s .. none of which actually took place, two were faked by the FBI(?) and four were scams run by third parties outside the USA.

In the absence of any other context it's assumed these were acts of "intent to murder" but that's about it .. logs that look like a duck and probably were a duck.

But no actual murders that anyone could find, no bodies, etc.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#967

Post by godshatter »

defrost wrote: post #26
maplant wrote: post #5

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

* Ulbricht's conviction became a cause célèbre in American libertarian circles. * In May 2024, candidate Donald Trump said that if re-elected President, he would commute Ulbricht's sentence on his first day in office ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Ulbricht I doubt Trump cares about Ulbricht as much as he cares (for whatever reason) about the continued support of various American libertarians (Robert F. Kennedy…

It's odd because libertarian candidates usually only garner 1% to 3% of the votes. It does appear that there are a lot of libertarians that vote Republican because of the stigma third parties have, though. As someone who often votes for libertarian candidates, I can't understand it. Republicans are about as libertarian as a cheese sandwich.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#968

Post by johnnyanmac »

nostromo wrote: post #299

I think the attacks on some of these black and gray markets has increased violent crime in the real world. I wish the federal government would stop shutting them down and instead use them as tools to build cases against people breaking the law. For example, for a while most prostitution and sex work seemed to be online, on places like Craigslist right next to ads for used furniture and jobs. And it seemed to be reall…

It could be much worse. Some parts of Onlyfans picked up the mantle for that sort of "service".

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#969

Post by modeless »

constantcrying wrote: post #722

Here is what the discussion looked like almost a decade ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9626985 Very striking to see how the sentiment has drastically shifted, while the facts of the case did not. There is a really cultural shift visible in how this issue is seen on here.

Most interesting post here. A good indicator of the real change in HN readership over the years. For the worse IMO.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#970

Post by zanek »

kybernetyk wrote: post #547
zanek wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills reading the comments on this thread. Multiple teenagers (one in Australia) died from the drugs distributed on Silk Road. Ross was ok with selling grenades, body parts, etc on there. But everyone is saying he served his time ???

Smart people can differentiate between a market place and the sellers themselves.

your argument is actually quite dumb, because they have messages from Ross giving the OK to sell most of these things.

He wasnt some hands off executive who had no idea. Smart people should be able to not equate an illegal market place with a legal market place

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