Donald Trump is back in the Oval Office, and more than just reinstating his iconic Diet Coke button, the 47th President of the United States has wasted no time in using his power to sign some controversial executive orders. As well as helping TikTok and clamping down on immigration, he's planning on pulling out of the Paris climate accord and rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
While some of his hundreds of executive orders might be hard to pull off, he's also used his presidential power to deliver over 1,600 pardons. George Washington issued the first ever presidential pardon in 1795 to leaders of the Whiskey Rebellion, and since then, everyone from Harry Truman to Joe Biden has issued them. During his first term, Trump pardoned the likes of his campaign chairman Paul Manafort, political strategist Steve Bannon, and even Lil Wayne.
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He's eclipsed this in just days of his second term, pardoning almost 1,600 people who were linked to the January 6 Capitol rioters. The pardons keep coming, and while Tiger King's Joe Exotic is annoyed he'd been overlooked again, Trump most recently pardoned 23 anti-abortion protestors on Janaury 23.
The reason Trump's pardons are in the news are largely to do with the release of Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht. Ulbricht was apprehended by the FBI in 2013 and charged with engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, distributing narcotics by means of the internet, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to traffic fraudulent identity documents, and conspiracy to commit computer hacking in 2015.
Ulbricht was the creator of the dark web marketplace where some 10,000 products were purchasable via Bitcoin. 70% of these were drugs, with everything from cocaine to steroids being on offer. Ulbricht got rich from Silk Road, reportedly earning over $13 million in commission.
As for why Ulbricht became one of the lucky ones pardoned by Trump, there are a variety of reasons. Trump reportedly wanted to know how to appeal to libertarian voters, and after the chair of the Libertarian Party flew to Mar-a-Lago in December 2023, Angela McArdle gave him a simple answer - free Ross Ulbricht.
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Trump spoke at the Libertarian Party conference in 2024, and although he was booed by the crowd, he championed Ulbricht's freedom if he got back into the White House. Staying true to his word, one of his first acts was to free the Silk Road creator.
Posting on his Truth Social platform, Trump said said he'd done it for Ross' mother, Lyn, as well as the Libertarian Movement, "which supported me so strongly."
Speaking to the New York Times, former federal prosecutor Dan Richman explained: "If you have a concentrated base of people around Trump, you have a very good chance at a pardon. There are problems with the pardon system working that way.”
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It's also well-timed given Trump's championing of cryptocurrency. As well as being the first former President to make a purchase with Bitcoin, Trumnplaunched his $TRUMP meme coin just days before his inauguration.
David Bailey, the chief executive of the news publication Bitcoin Magazine, says that Silk Road 'onboarded a million people to Bitcoin', while Ulbricht "represents many of the ideological views of our community."
McArdle has faced backlash from fellow libertarians due to dealing with Trump, but in an email seen by the NYT, a Trump staffer reportedly emailed her saying: "Promises made, promises kept."
Ubricht earns a lucratvie place on Trump's growing list of pardons, and by the looks of it, he's more than grateful for the opportunity.