Why does Donald Trump want to free the founder of an online black market?

With the 2024 election weeks away, former President Donald Trump has renewed a promise: if he wins back the White House, he'll release Ross Ulbricht from prison. Ulbricht has been behind bars since 2015 for creating Silk Road, an infamous black market website on the dark net. Trump has pledged several times to release him from prison.

Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after being found guilty of conspiracy and engaging in a criminal enterprise by founding Silk Road. The website was a "sprawling black market bazaar where unlawful goods and services, including illegal drugs of virtually all varieties, were bought and sold regularly," according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), along with a sister website called the Armoury that sold weapons. Before being shut down, Silk Road generated $200 million in sales and more than $13 million in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, according to the DOJ.

Libertarians and the cryptocurrency community got Trump's attention with their calls to have Ulbricht's sentence commuted, and he has said several times that he would do so as president, including during speeches and in social media posts. What would it mean if Trump went through with this promise (which some have called hypocritical given his stance on drug dealers)?

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

What did the commentators say?

While Trump has reportedly expressed "some sympathy" for Ulbricht, his "continuing advocacy for the Silk Road founder appears incoherent and self-serving," said Sean Craig at The Daily Beast. Trump has called for Ulbricht's release even though he has "taken extreme positions on the drug trade, repeatedly suggesting that traffickers, smugglers and dealers should be eligible for the death penalty."

But Ulbricht has become "something of a cause célèbre among some crypto enthusiasts and libertarians, two demographics Trump is wooing in advance of next month's presidential election," said Craig. This means that the former president could be giving in to their demands despite his stance on drug dealers.

For Trump, releasing Ulbricht is an "easy chance to curry favor with the crypto industry," said Emily Nicolle at Bloomberg. Ulbricht's imprisonment "appeals to the sector because Silk Road was the first example of Bitcoin's effectiveness as a 'censorship-resistant transactional system at scale,'" Preston Byrne of law firm Byrne & Storm said to Bloomberg. Trump "saying he'll free Ulbricht sends the message that he's taking input not only from industry titans but also 'true believers.'"

But while Trump has been working to bring libertarians into his base, the "pledge to pardon Ulbricht may not be enough," said Peder Schaefer at Politico. Trump "received sustained boos and jeers from the crowd" during a speech at the Libertarian National Convention earlier this year, despite his stance on Ulbricht. "I'm happy he said that. But it's not changing the needle," Billy Hunt, a Rhode Island Libertarian Party delegate, said to Politico.

And releasing Ulbricht "makes no sense because online crimes have real-world impacts," said Gil Duran at the San Francisco Chronicle. It has been reported that at least six people died after taking drugs purchased on Silk Road, but "many of Ulbricht's supporters share the weird belief, popular among Bitcoiners, that crimes committed via computer are expressions of liberty that deserve immunity from government authority." But Ulbricht's case is "about whether a new class of crypto supercriminals can use cyberspace to subvert government authority and get away with murder."

What next?

The campaign among libertarians and crypto backers to have Ulbricht released continues. The Silk Road founder "maintains a surprisingly positive attitude for someone who is facing the rest of his life in prison," Alex Winter said at Rolling Stone.

Many crypto-related publications, such as the aptly named Bitcoin Magazine, have published pieces calling for Ulbricht's release. An official website campaigning for his pardoning has also been set up. However, while Trump may have pledged to release Ulbricht, this will likely not be at the top of Kamala Harris' to-do list if she were to win the presidency. Ulbricht is currently incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary, Tucson in Arizona, where he continues to serve a pair of life sentences.