12 ms·

Trump Is Considering Clemency for Silk Road Founder

200 points by danso 6y ago

underseacables 6y ago
Finally, a pardon that makes sense. Ulbrecht certainly broke the law, but the sentence was far too severe.
- imposterr 6y ago
  How do you figure that the sentence was too severe?
  - UShouldBWorking 6y ago
    Is Larry Page responsible for the worst things ever sent through Gmail? Is Zuckerberg going to jail for people sharing illegal content on his site?
- jiveturkey 6y ago
  maybe. i mean, he hired a hit man.
  - zionic 6y ago
    *claims the feds
    - chipotle_coyote 6y ago
      *claims the transcripts that came out at his trial, which AFAIK neither he nor his defense attorneys disputed. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/02/the-hitman-scam-dread-pirate-roberts-bizarre-murder-for-hire-attempts/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/02/the-hitman-scam-...
      - mikeyouse 6y ago
        He literally wrote in his journal about how he hoped that having these people murdered would make it easier to run his drug empire.. Ulbricht isn’t a good person, he had a very bad lawyer which probably cost him several decades of imprisonment but just because he was a “hacker” who did his crimes with new technology doesn’t somehow make him better than any of the other people in prison for the same crimes. Seriously, sit down and read the journals they admitted into evidence, the guy is a sociopath focused on getting rich through selling drugs he knew were killing people.
        dylan604 6y ago
        I love the fact that in the 2010s, and for someone as technical as Ulbricht, that writing in a journal about criminal conspiracies did NOT sound any kind of alerts. Of all of the hoops he was jumping through to stay undetected, all of the OpSec he had to have practiced, yet he kept a detailed journal. Oops? Just don't know how to respond
        mikeyouse 6y ago
        It was so mundane and psychotic.. Literally from line to line just error logging servers and talking about ordering half million dollar hits. > being blackmailed with user info. talking with large distributor (hell's angels) > got word that blackmailer was excuted, created file upload script, started to fix problem with bond refunds over 3 months old > reconfigured nginx to not time out. almost all errors have disappeared. > sent payment to angels for hit on tony76 and his 3 associates, began setting up hecho as standby, very high load (300/16), took site offline and refactored main and category pages to be more efficient https://www.wired.com/2015/01/heres-secret-silk-road-journal-laptop-ross-ulbricht/ https://www.wired.com/2015/01/heres-secret-silk-road-journal...
- hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
  For running Silk Road perhaps, but I never fully understood the whole "hired hits" part of this case. Did Ulbrecht actually think he was hiring hitmen to commit murder? Was it just bravado? Because I can't understand supporting Ulbrecht's clemency if he really thought he was hiring assassins to kill 5 people. Edit: To be clear, because I've already got what feel like knee jerk downvotes, I honestly don't understand the hitman charges in the case and would like if someone has any more info. I mean, the chat logs looked pretty damning, but then all of those charges seem to have been thrown out, so I'd like to understand the reason for that. Were the chat logs forged in some way? Was it a technicality? Did the Feds just not care because they had enough in the drug charges?
  - tptacek 6y ago
    The evidence presented suggests that he did believe that; moreover, despite repeated claims to the contrary on message boards, his murder-for-hire scheme was brought to trial; it was a predicate on his conspiracy charge.
  - nullc 6y ago
    He was never charged with most of that so he didn't have an opportunity to defend against it. I personally found it hard to read as something he believed was real, ... assuming he actually had those conversations at all. One of these discussions goes something like this: Crook: Sorry dread pirate, I don't want to extort you but a big bad nasty dealer is demanding money from me. DPR: Put him on, let me see if I can work it out. Crook-wearing-nose-and-glasses: This big bad dealer. DPR: Okay why don't I pay you what the 'other guy' was demanding, and you make him go away forever. Crook-wearing-nose-and-glasses: Can do. I can't be the only person that read that as a subtext of "I know I'm just talking to you, but I want to make it clear that you're not going to get to try this stunt multiple times"-- arguably an assault. But I would just assume that getting death threats is just a cost of doing business as an extortionist. Of course, there is no allegation that anyone actually died at all. Keep in mind that much of this evidence was collected by a couple of phenomenally corrupt officers who compromised the silkroad systems and robbed it blind (some of whom have now been convicted but it appears there may have been an additional one who wasn't caught). Ulbrecht's defence was denied access to large amounts of potentially exculpatory evidence because the prosecution completely concealed the corrupt officers from the case. It is absolutely a miscarriage of justice to hold the murder for hire allegations against him when the prosecution dare not have charged any of it because doing so would have forced them to expose that the chain of custody of their evidence went through extremely corrupt LE who had a tens of millions of dollar incentive to keep all the attention on someone else while they lined their pockets. But I'm just some internet hothead. Here is what the National Lawyers Guild said: > “The sentence was based on judicial findings related to allegations of serious crimes that not only were never found by a jury but were not even among the charges leveled at trial.” Because of this I think we can never know the truth, but it a basic bedrock principle of our legal system that when the prosecution is corrupt and engages in misconduct such that we can't be sure of the truth, we'd rather let a guilty person walk than wrongfully convict or reward unethical and inequitable conduct by the state.
- manojlds 6y ago
  Reading the American Kingpin, it doesn't feel like someone I would want pardoned.
- refurb 6y ago
  Agreed. This isn't a "Ulbrecht never should have gone to jail", this is "putting someone in jail until they die is too severe a sentence". I mean, people who have actually murdered other people are usually at least given a chance at parole.
ajharrison 6y ago
He literally wanted to hire a hit man to get someone killed apart from breaking several other federal laws. Meanwhile thousands if not millions of people of colour are sitting in a jail cell petty drug charges, doing much worse time relatively speaking. This is nothing but white privelage.
heyitsguay 6y ago
Makes sense. The Trump presidency and the broader wave of corrupt right-wing nationalism have been big victories for international organized crime. The spotlight has been on Russia, but they're just the biggest mafia state.
adventured 6y ago
If you're going to do Ulbricht, which is a giant FU to the FBI (who Trump believes screwed him over), you might as well go ahead and do Assange and Snowden and finish the job. At this point in the unhinged circus show that the US has become, I'm really looking forward to it just to watch the spectacle that will be the deep state meltdown and media tantrum ('one of his final actions as President will be to demonstrate just how lawless the Trump Administration was' - or something like that). I'd put money on Assange having a very slim shot at a pardon and Snowden having zero shot (Trump ultimately leans toward being a big government, big national security type). Snowden, Assange, Ulbricht, Manning, Kim Dotcom - all under the Obama / Biden Administration, and now Biden is about to be President (the guy that took direct orders from Hollywood & Co. to go after Kim Dotcom). I'd also bet on another wave of martyrs at the hands of the Biden Admin.
- wyldfire 6y ago
  > Trump ultimately leans toward being a big government, big national security type I'd say he has very little ideology that he's committed to other than his own personal gain. He's likely to pardon anyone who might have shown him fealty in the past or who is willing to engage in quid-pro-quo.
  - Taniwha 6y ago
    the whole selling of indulgences thing is what triggered the reformation ... maybe there will be an upside to all this corruption in the long term
  - crx07 6y ago
    He literally has no ideology or apparent political convictions of any kind. His position on any given issue can change 3 times in the same day and his disposition has no other pattern besides consistent inconsistency.
    - throwaway201103 6y ago
      So strong opinions, weakly held? I've seen that way of thinking praised here on HN many times.
leptoniscool 6y ago
The platform shouldn't be held responsible for their content, similar to social media right?
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
papito 6y ago
The orgy of pardons and executions.
- Barrin92 6y ago
  coming from a parliamentary democracy (legislatures here technically do have the power to pardon but it's very rarely exercised) I find the practise to be extremely weird. It essentially inserts an insane amount of arbitrariness and personal favouritism into what is supposed to be an impartial legal process. Given how often it has been abused for political purposes in the US it seems particularly problematic.
  - spoonjim 6y ago
    The Framers of the Constitution believed that they could thwart the rise of political parties by having a President and legislature who were elected completely separately and would be locked in a power struggle against each other. The pardon power is to prevent legislative overreach -- if the legislature made jaywalking a federal crime with a 10 year jail sentence, the President (or the jury) could simply refuse to allow this law to be enforced. Despite the high profile political cases, the majority of presidential pardons are given to people who have sat in jail for a long time on crimes that are not at the highest level of turpitude such as murder/rape/kidnapping.
  - baumandm 6y ago
    In order to avoid the appearance of impropriety, the Office of the Pardon Attorney was created, along with a process for reviewing and vetting pardon requests. Historically it has not been quite as arbitrary or controversial as one might think.
tsjq 6y ago
setting up the stage for whataboutism ; would be useful when Trump pardons his friends / himself .
obilgic 6y ago
Why now?
- tsjq 6y ago
  setting up the stage for whataboutism ; would be useful when Trump pardons his friends / himself .
  - seppin 6y ago
    Why do you think he pardoned this guy: https://abc7chicago.com/politics/rod-blagojevich-officially-disbarred-by-il-supreme-court/6193656/ https://abc7chicago.com/politics/rod-blagojevich-officially-... for Bribery? Because he was getting set to conduct a whole lot of bribery.
    - mrlala 6y ago
      Oh god I forgot about this pardon.. fuck trump
  - zimpenfish 6y ago
    If he does pardon himself, I believe that means he can't take the 5th when asked about the things he's pardoned himself for? Which is going to be spectacular when he eventually gets deposed because you know he just can't help himself.
    - tshaddox 6y ago
      Why would he care that he can’t take the 5th, if he has pardoned himself and anyone else that he cares about who would be incriminated by his testimony?
      - zimpenfish 6y ago
        I believe it's only a federal pardon - states (eg. NY) can still pursue him for anything they can justify. This is a good explanation - https://www.nytimes.com/article/trump-pardons.html https://www.nytimes.com/article/trump-pardons.html
pengaru 6y ago
Is he hoping by demonstrating mercy for convicted criminals he'll receive a lesser sentence for his crimes after leaving office?
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
null0pointer 6y ago
As much as I think Ross's sentence is too severe, I wish he would pardon Snowden or Assange instead. You know, people that actually did good for the world and are being punished for it.
- thaumasiotes 6y ago
  > I wish he would pardon Snowden or Assange instead. ¿Por qué no los dos?
  - labster 6y ago
    Because Snowden is a patriot, while Assange is a Russian asset who convinced people to ignore a woman’s story of sexual assault. If pardoned, Snowden would go back to the US and be a productive member of society, while Assange would go back to publishing whatever information his Russian handlers give him.
    - roenxi 6y ago
      These shadowy Russians appear to be on a tireless quest to expose (literal, largely unchallenged) truths to the American public. Why should they be opposed?
      - pfranz 6y ago
        This comes up every time secret information is dropped and applies equally when it's more covertly released. The obvious reason is they get to choose what information, when, and how its disclosed. For example, hack both sides, release one at a damaging time and blackmail the other into compliance. Indiscriminate releasing of information can put people in immediate danger (like embedded spies). You can also drop misinformation into a dump of legitimate information. Or a similar technique where you exaggerate true information because admitting to the truth is embarrassing; like claiming 1,000 civilians were killed when the actual number is closer to 600.
        6y ago
hoka-one-one 6y ago
My hope along with these pardons is that sometime before the inauguration he orders the US Marshals to seize and publish all classified documents.
- michaelmcdonald 6y ago
  Classified documents related to what? The investigations into his own criminal conduct?
  - hoka-one-one 6y ago
    I'm surprised you took my comment as partisan but yes that would be included under the umbrella of "all classified documents"
Karishma1234 6y ago
Would love that.
codeyperson 6y ago
I bet there’s Bitcoin in it for Trump. Money seems to be his primary motivator.
hombre_fatal 6y ago
"X considering Y" is some of the most annoying "news" there is. We all get to act like it's happening, and the news publication gets clicks for its unverified "wouldn't it be crazy if we actually had this scoop?" fantasy. I remember years of "Twitter considering edit button" which finally seemed to quiet down... until https://twitter.com/twitter/status/1278763679421431809 https://twitter.com/twitter/status/1278763679421431809 provoked a whole new rumor cycle.
- mxcrossb 6y ago
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_balloon https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_balloon
  - just-juan-post 6y ago
    That's new to me. Here's a similar one you might enjoy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window
  - Nicksil 6y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_balloon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_balloon
- CyberRabbi 6y ago
  Yup it’s just clickbait. Same for the report from “people familiar with the matter” that trump was considering an Assange pardon. It works but it’s not reality, its certainly not news, it’s more like fan fiction.
vmception 6y ago
I think my AI ML sent a letter to his office It chose to say that pardoning Ross would "own the libs" because "liberal judges from disaster run sanctuary cities" colluded with "corrupt deep state agents" to make a mockery of our justice system. Have new messaging for the new administration, better remember to turn this particular bot off.
shp0ngle 6y ago
There are people in prison for drug possession charges, but sure, Dread Pirate Roberts deserves clemency, because he's white and was into bitcoin
- buzzerbetrayed 6y ago
  Read this comment directly after the sibling comment by hombre_fatal. Really made hombre_fatal's comment hit home for me. Haha
eruleman 6y ago
Jake Chevinsky has a great Twitter thread about how Ross Ulbricht's sentencing was deeply unjust. [1] Basically, the judge sentenced him for a crime that he wasn't convicted of (murder-for-hire): 'When she [the judge] gave him double life plus 40 years, she said the "murders significantly justified the life sentence."' The most heartbreaking part of the story is the letter Ross read to the judge before sentencing: "If you find my conviction warrants a sentence that allows for my eventual release, I will not lose my love for humanity during my years of imprisonment, . . . I will do what I can to make up for not being there for the people I love, and to make the world a better place. Even now I understand what a terrible mistake I made... I know you must take away my middle years, but please leave me my old age. Please leave a small light at the end of the tunnel ... a chance to redeem myself in the free world before I meet my maker." https://twitter.com/jchervinsky/status/1025008589080080384 https://twitter.com/jchervinsky/status/1025008589080080384
- gok 6y ago
  Do you feel the evidence suggests he did not actually intend to commit the murder-for-hire?
  - epicureanideal 6y ago
    But was he convicted of it? If not, shouldn’t be sentenced for it.
    - tshaddox 6y ago
      It seems to me that, if a judge is able to choose a sentence among multiple possible sentences given a particular conviction, this by definition means that the information the judge uses to make that decision comes from things other than what the person was convicted of.
      - ghkbrew 6y ago
        I disagree. Leeway in sentencing is to allow the court to better match the severity of punishment to the severity of crime when someone is convicted of crime which can cover a wide variety of behavior. Not to punish someone for crimes they weren't convicted of.
Traster 6y ago
I keep an eye on some of the right wing forums and I’ve seen this claim repeatedly made about various people like Snowden and Asante and various others. Everytime the claims turn out to be totally baseless wishful thinking. So while I understand the feeling that Ulbricht was treated unfairly I would take this with an enormous pinch of salt. All that’s going on at the moment is that pardons are being considered for lots of things and people are trying to push for their own favourite candidates by trying to rally support in the press.
- 99009900 6y ago
  Throwaway because I usually lurk. I agree with you, yet Pickard was released this last summer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Leonard_Pickard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Leonard_Pickard The vast majority of pardon pleas go unnoticed and yes, media campaigns try to make it seem like these things are getting the attention they might deserve... yet even if trump doesnt do it, the legalization of pot, decrim in oregon/cali, mdma/ketamine studies, etc are all pointing towards a (bare minimum) decriminalized future, one in which criminals like ross will begin to look less like criminals. Also the fact that news articles are even willing to suggest that trump is considering it is fascinating; I have yet to see news articles suggesting something similar of say, nixon. Do you think ross wont be a free man in 20 years?

200 points by danso 6y ago

underseacables 6y ago

Finally, a pardon that makes sense. Ulbrecht certainly broke the law, but the sentence was far too severe.

imposterr 6y ago
How do you figure that the sentence was too severe?
- UShouldBWorking 6y ago
  Is Larry Page responsible for the worst things ever sent through Gmail? Is Zuckerberg going to jail for people sharing illegal content on his site?
jiveturkey 6y ago
maybe. i mean, he hired a hit man.
- zionic 6y ago
  *claims the feds
  - chipotle_coyote 6y ago
    *claims the transcripts that came out at his trial, which AFAIK neither he nor his defense attorneys disputed. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/02/the-hitman-scam-dread-pirate-roberts-bizarre-murder-for-hire-attempts/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/02/the-hitman-scam-...
    - mikeyouse 6y ago
      He literally wrote in his journal about how he hoped that having these people murdered would make it easier to run his drug empire.. Ulbricht isn’t a good person, he had a very bad lawyer which probably cost him several decades of imprisonment but just because he was a “hacker” who did his crimes with new technology doesn’t somehow make him better than any of the other people in prison for the same crimes. Seriously, sit down and read the journals they admitted into evidence, the guy is a sociopath focused on getting rich through selling drugs he knew were killing people.
      - dylan604 6y ago
        I love the fact that in the 2010s, and for someone as technical as Ulbricht, that writing in a journal about criminal conspiracies did NOT sound any kind of alerts. Of all of the hoops he was jumping through to stay undetected, all of the OpSec he had to have practiced, yet he kept a detailed journal. Oops? Just don't know how to respond
        mikeyouse 6y ago
        It was so mundane and psychotic.. Literally from line to line just error logging servers and talking about ordering half million dollar hits. > being blackmailed with user info. talking with large distributor (hell's angels) > got word that blackmailer was excuted, created file upload script, started to fix problem with bond refunds over 3 months old > reconfigured nginx to not time out. almost all errors have disappeared. > sent payment to angels for hit on tony76 and his 3 associates, began setting up hecho as standby, very high load (300/16), took site offline and refactored main and category pages to be more efficient https://www.wired.com/2015/01/heres-secret-silk-road-journal-laptop-ross-ulbricht/ https://www.wired.com/2015/01/heres-secret-silk-road-journal...
hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
For running Silk Road perhaps, but I never fully understood the whole "hired hits" part of this case. Did Ulbrecht actually think he was hiring hitmen to commit murder? Was it just bravado? Because I can't understand supporting Ulbrecht's clemency if he really thought he was hiring assassins to kill 5 people. Edit: To be clear, because I've already got what feel like knee jerk downvotes, I honestly don't understand the hitman charges in the case and would like if someone has any more info. I mean, the chat logs looked pretty damning, but then all of those charges seem to have been thrown out, so I'd like to understand the reason for that. Were the chat logs forged in some way? Was it a technicality? Did the Feds just not care because they had enough in the drug charges?
- tptacek 6y ago
  The evidence presented suggests that he did believe that; moreover, despite repeated claims to the contrary on message boards, his murder-for-hire scheme was brought to trial; it was a predicate on his conspiracy charge.
- nullc 6y ago
  He was never charged with most of that so he didn't have an opportunity to defend against it. I personally found it hard to read as something he believed was real, ... assuming he actually had those conversations at all. One of these discussions goes something like this: Crook: Sorry dread pirate, I don't want to extort you but a big bad nasty dealer is demanding money from me. DPR: Put him on, let me see if I can work it out. Crook-wearing-nose-and-glasses: This big bad dealer. DPR: Okay why don't I pay you what the 'other guy' was demanding, and you make him go away forever. Crook-wearing-nose-and-glasses: Can do. I can't be the only person that read that as a subtext of "I know I'm just talking to you, but I want to make it clear that you're not going to get to try this stunt multiple times"-- arguably an assault. But I would just assume that getting death threats is just a cost of doing business as an extortionist. Of course, there is no allegation that anyone actually died at all. Keep in mind that much of this evidence was collected by a couple of phenomenally corrupt officers who compromised the silkroad systems and robbed it blind (some of whom have now been convicted but it appears there may have been an additional one who wasn't caught). Ulbrecht's defence was denied access to large amounts of potentially exculpatory evidence because the prosecution completely concealed the corrupt officers from the case. It is absolutely a miscarriage of justice to hold the murder for hire allegations against him when the prosecution dare not have charged any of it because doing so would have forced them to expose that the chain of custody of their evidence went through extremely corrupt LE who had a tens of millions of dollar incentive to keep all the attention on someone else while they lined their pockets. But I'm just some internet hothead. Here is what the National Lawyers Guild said: > “The sentence was based on judicial findings related to allegations of serious crimes that not only were never found by a jury but were not even among the charges leveled at trial.” Because of this I think we can never know the truth, but it a basic bedrock principle of our legal system that when the prosecution is corrupt and engages in misconduct such that we can't be sure of the truth, we'd rather let a guilty person walk than wrongfully convict or reward unethical and inequitable conduct by the state.
manojlds 6y ago
Reading the American Kingpin, it doesn't feel like someone I would want pardoned.
refurb 6y ago
Agreed. This isn't a "Ulbrecht never should have gone to jail", this is "putting someone in jail until they die is too severe a sentence". I mean, people who have actually murdered other people are usually at least given a chance at parole.

ajharrison 6y ago

He literally wanted to hire a hit man to get someone killed apart from breaking several other federal laws. Meanwhile thousands if not millions of people of colour are sitting in a jail cell petty drug charges, doing much worse time relatively speaking. This is nothing but white privelage.

heyitsguay 6y ago

Makes sense. The Trump presidency and the broader wave of corrupt right-wing nationalism have been big victories for international organized crime. The spotlight has been on Russia, but they're just the biggest mafia state.

adventured 6y ago

If you're going to do Ulbricht, which is a giant FU to the FBI (who Trump believes screwed him over), you might as well go ahead and do Assange and Snowden and finish the job. At this point in the unhinged circus show that the US has become, I'm really looking forward to it just to watch the spectacle that will be the deep state meltdown and media tantrum ('one of his final actions as President will be to demonstrate just how lawless the Trump Administration was' - or something like that). I'd put money on Assange having a very slim shot at a pardon and Snowden having zero shot (Trump ultimately leans toward being a big government, big national security type). Snowden, Assange, Ulbricht, Manning, Kim Dotcom - all under the Obama / Biden Administration, and now Biden is about to be President (the guy that took direct orders from Hollywood & Co. to go after Kim Dotcom). I'd also bet on another wave of martyrs at the hands of the Biden Admin.

wyldfire 6y ago
> Trump ultimately leans toward being a big government, big national security type I'd say he has very little ideology that he's committed to other than his own personal gain. He's likely to pardon anyone who might have shown him fealty in the past or who is willing to engage in quid-pro-quo.
- Taniwha 6y ago
  the whole selling of indulgences thing is what triggered the reformation ... maybe there will be an upside to all this corruption in the long term
- crx07 6y ago
  He literally has no ideology or apparent political convictions of any kind. His position on any given issue can change 3 times in the same day and his disposition has no other pattern besides consistent inconsistency.
  - throwaway201103 6y ago
    So strong opinions, weakly held? I've seen that way of thinking praised here on HN many times.

leptoniscool 6y ago

The platform shouldn't be held responsible for their content, similar to social media right?

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

papito 6y ago

The orgy of pardons and executions.

Barrin92 6y ago
coming from a parliamentary democracy (legislatures here technically do have the power to pardon but it's very rarely exercised) I find the practise to be extremely weird. It essentially inserts an insane amount of arbitrariness and personal favouritism into what is supposed to be an impartial legal process. Given how often it has been abused for political purposes in the US it seems particularly problematic.
- spoonjim 6y ago
  The Framers of the Constitution believed that they could thwart the rise of political parties by having a President and legislature who were elected completely separately and would be locked in a power struggle against each other. The pardon power is to prevent legislative overreach -- if the legislature made jaywalking a federal crime with a 10 year jail sentence, the President (or the jury) could simply refuse to allow this law to be enforced. Despite the high profile political cases, the majority of presidential pardons are given to people who have sat in jail for a long time on crimes that are not at the highest level of turpitude such as murder/rape/kidnapping.
- baumandm 6y ago
  In order to avoid the appearance of impropriety, the Office of the Pardon Attorney was created, along with a process for reviewing and vetting pardon requests. Historically it has not been quite as arbitrary or controversial as one might think.

tsjq 6y ago

setting up the stage for whataboutism ; would be useful when Trump pardons his friends / himself .

obilgic 6y ago

Why now?

tsjq 6y ago
setting up the stage for whataboutism ; would be useful when Trump pardons his friends / himself .
- seppin 6y ago
  Why do you think he pardoned this guy: https://abc7chicago.com/politics/rod-blagojevich-officially-disbarred-by-il-supreme-court/6193656/ https://abc7chicago.com/politics/rod-blagojevich-officially-... for Bribery? Because he was getting set to conduct a whole lot of bribery.
  - mrlala 6y ago
    Oh god I forgot about this pardon.. fuck trump
- zimpenfish 6y ago
  If he does pardon himself, I believe that means he can't take the 5th when asked about the things he's pardoned himself for? Which is going to be spectacular when he eventually gets deposed because you know he just can't help himself.
  - tshaddox 6y ago
    Why would he care that he can’t take the 5th, if he has pardoned himself and anyone else that he cares about who would be incriminated by his testimony?
    - zimpenfish 6y ago
      I believe it's only a federal pardon - states (eg. NY) can still pursue him for anything they can justify. This is a good explanation - https://www.nytimes.com/article/trump-pardons.html https://www.nytimes.com/article/trump-pardons.html

pengaru 6y ago

Is he hoping by demonstrating mercy for convicted criminals he'll receive a lesser sentence for his crimes after leaving office?

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

null0pointer 6y ago

As much as I think Ross's sentence is too severe, I wish he would pardon Snowden or Assange instead. You know, people that actually did good for the world and are being punished for it.

thaumasiotes 6y ago
> I wish he would pardon Snowden or Assange instead. ¿Por qué no los dos?
- labster 6y ago
  Because Snowden is a patriot, while Assange is a Russian asset who convinced people to ignore a woman’s story of sexual assault. If pardoned, Snowden would go back to the US and be a productive member of society, while Assange would go back to publishing whatever information his Russian handlers give him.
  - roenxi 6y ago
    These shadowy Russians appear to be on a tireless quest to expose (literal, largely unchallenged) truths to the American public. Why should they be opposed?
    - pfranz 6y ago
      This comes up every time secret information is dropped and applies equally when it's more covertly released. The obvious reason is they get to choose what information, when, and how its disclosed. For example, hack both sides, release one at a damaging time and blackmail the other into compliance. Indiscriminate releasing of information can put people in immediate danger (like embedded spies). You can also drop misinformation into a dump of legitimate information. Or a similar technique where you exaggerate true information because admitting to the truth is embarrassing; like claiming 1,000 civilians were killed when the actual number is closer to 600.
      - 6y ago

hoka-one-one 6y ago

My hope along with these pardons is that sometime before the inauguration he orders the US Marshals to seize and publish all classified documents.

michaelmcdonald 6y ago
Classified documents related to what? The investigations into his own criminal conduct?
- hoka-one-one 6y ago
  I'm surprised you took my comment as partisan but yes that would be included under the umbrella of "all classified documents"

Karishma1234 6y ago

Would love that.

codeyperson 6y ago

I bet there’s Bitcoin in it for Trump. Money seems to be his primary motivator.

hombre_fatal 6y ago

"X considering Y" is some of the most annoying "news" there is. We all get to act like it's happening, and the news publication gets clicks for its unverified "wouldn't it be crazy if we actually had this scoop?" fantasy. I remember years of "Twitter considering edit button" which finally seemed to quiet down... until https://twitter.com/twitter/status/1278763679421431809 https://twitter.com/twitter/status/1278763679421431809 provoked a whole new rumor cycle.

mxcrossb 6y ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_balloon https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_balloon
- just-juan-post 6y ago
  That's new to me. Here's a similar one you might enjoy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window
- Nicksil 6y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_balloon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_balloon
CyberRabbi 6y ago
Yup it’s just clickbait. Same for the report from “people familiar with the matter” that trump was considering an Assange pardon. It works but it’s not reality, its certainly not news, it’s more like fan fiction.

vmception 6y ago

I think my AI ML sent a letter to his office It chose to say that pardoning Ross would "own the libs" because "liberal judges from disaster run sanctuary cities" colluded with "corrupt deep state agents" to make a mockery of our justice system. Have new messaging for the new administration, better remember to turn this particular bot off.

shp0ngle 6y ago

There are people in prison for drug possession charges, but sure, Dread Pirate Roberts deserves clemency, because he's white and was into bitcoin

buzzerbetrayed 6y ago
Read this comment directly after the sibling comment by hombre_fatal. Really made hombre_fatal's comment hit home for me. Haha

eruleman 6y ago

Jake Chevinsky has a great Twitter thread about how Ross Ulbricht's sentencing was deeply unjust. [1] Basically, the judge sentenced him for a crime that he wasn't convicted of (murder-for-hire): 'When she [the judge] gave him double life plus 40 years, she said the "murders significantly justified the life sentence."' The most heartbreaking part of the story is the letter Ross read to the judge before sentencing: "If you find my conviction warrants a sentence that allows for my eventual release, I will not lose my love for humanity during my years of imprisonment, . . . I will do what I can to make up for not being there for the people I love, and to make the world a better place. Even now I understand what a terrible mistake I made... I know you must take away my middle years, but please leave me my old age. Please leave a small light at the end of the tunnel ... a chance to redeem myself in the free world before I meet my maker." https://twitter.com/jchervinsky/status/1025008589080080384 https://twitter.com/jchervinsky/status/1025008589080080384

gok 6y ago
Do you feel the evidence suggests he did not actually intend to commit the murder-for-hire?
- epicureanideal 6y ago
  But was he convicted of it? If not, shouldn’t be sentenced for it.
  - tshaddox 6y ago
    It seems to me that, if a judge is able to choose a sentence among multiple possible sentences given a particular conviction, this by definition means that the information the judge uses to make that decision comes from things other than what the person was convicted of.
    - ghkbrew 6y ago
      I disagree. Leeway in sentencing is to allow the court to better match the severity of punishment to the severity of crime when someone is convicted of crime which can cover a wide variety of behavior. Not to punish someone for crimes they weren't convicted of.

Traster 6y ago

I keep an eye on some of the right wing forums and I’ve seen this claim repeatedly made about various people like Snowden and Asante and various others. Everytime the claims turn out to be totally baseless wishful thinking. So while I understand the feeling that Ulbricht was treated unfairly I would take this with an enormous pinch of salt. All that’s going on at the moment is that pardons are being considered for lots of things and people are trying to push for their own favourite candidates by trying to rally support in the press.

99009900 6y ago
Throwaway because I usually lurk. I agree with you, yet Pickard was released this last summer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Leonard_Pickard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Leonard_Pickard The vast majority of pardon pleas go unnoticed and yes, media campaigns try to make it seem like these things are getting the attention they might deserve... yet even if trump doesnt do it, the legalization of pot, decrim in oregon/cali, mdma/ketamine studies, etc are all pointing towards a (bare minimum) decriminalized future, one in which criminals like ross will begin to look less like criminals. Also the fact that news articles are even willing to suggest that trump is considering it is fascinating; I have yet to see news articles suggesting something similar of say, nixon. Do you think ross wont be a free man in 20 years?