President Trump is expected to commute the lifetime prison sentence of Ross Ulbricht, founder of the notorious dark web site Silk Road, The Post has learned.
A source close to the White House said at midday Tuesday that the Ulbricht pardon was “incoming.”
Brandon Sample, Ulbricht’s clemency lawyer, told The Post in an email Tuesday: “We do expect President Trump to grant clemency.”
In response to a follow-up asking when he expected the order to come through, Sample responded: “The president, when a candidate, said that he would release Ross on his first day in office. We have no doubt the president will follow through on his commitment to release Ross. Ross, his family, and all his supporters are forever grateful to President Trump for his willingness to show mercy to Ross.”
Trump, 78, had vowed in May to reduce Ulbricht’s life sentence on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering “down to time served” if he won the 2024 election.
Ulbricht was arrested in October 2013 in San Francisco and accused of running the notorious website — which sold drugs and other illegal products while accepting bitcoin as payment — under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts.”
Now 40, Ulbricht was convicted in February 2015 on charges including drug trafficking and conspiracies to commit money laundering and computer hacking. He was sentenced that May to two life terms in prison, plus 40 years.
Ulbricht has unsuccessfully appealed his conviction and sentence up to the Supreme Court, leaving him to serve out his time at a maximum security prison in Arizona.
On Tuesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) sent a letter to Trump asking him to show mercy. “I write to urge you to follow through on your stated intention to commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht. Mr. Ulbricht is serving two life sentences plus forty years without parole for nonviolent offenses related to the website he launched in early 2011,” Paul’s letter read.
“Like so many others, I am shocked by the harsh sentence imposed on this first-time offender.”
Paul argued that Ulbricht’s sentence is “vastly disproportionate to his crimes,” since “the worst drug sellers on the site received significantly more lenient sentences.”
Hellbound and Down 