Is the pardoned Silk Road founder getting more involved in US politics?

After being in prison for more than 11 years for his involvement with the darknet marketplace Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht appears to have wasted no time making public appearances.

In a March 4 X post, Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie said he had invited Ulbricht to attend a joint session of the US Congress, at which President Donald Trump gave a speech on his administration’s policies. The event marked one of the first times the Silk Road founder appeared in public since his release from prison in January after receiving a presidential pardon from Trump.

After leaving prison, Ulbricht regularly posted to social media, thanking Trump and calling for clemency for “Bitcoin Jesus” Roger Ver, who faces tax evasion charges. Some speculated that the president could consider inviting Ulbricht to a March 7 crypto summit at the White House. However, at the time of publication, he did not appear to have been added to any official guest list. Cointelegraph reached out to Ulbricht for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.

Related: SBF cozies up to Republican Party amid clemency push

Ulbricht, who founded the Silk Road marketplace on the dark web in 2011, had been in custody since his arrest in 2013 for allowing users to buy and sell illegal drugs as well as offer unlawful goods and services. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 2015, prompting some of his supporters to petition for a presidential pardon — likely one of the only ways Ulbricht could have been freed. 

Are other presidential pardons forthcoming?

Trump did not pardon or commute Ulbricht’s sentence while in office from 2017 to 2021. However, a New York Times report suggested that the then-presidential candidate promised to commute the Silk Road founder’s sentence to appease libertarian voters in the 2024 election — though Trump won, it had been expected to be a very close race with then-Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

President Trump has the authority to pardon or commute the sentence of anyone facing federal charges. Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2024 for his role in misusing customer funds, also appeared to be lobbying Trump for a pardon. His lawyers have filed a motion to appeal his conviction and sentence.

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