133 points

Trump said he had called Ulbricht’s mother to tell her he would pardon her son “in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly”.

Wildy transactional.

So… does “full and unconditional” mean he’s also pardoned for the murders-for-hire? Or just for being a drug lord and America’s Next Top Website Boy?

permalink
report
reply
56 points

I’m actually kind of impressed he kept his word. That’s unexpected

permalink
report
parent
reply

His part is signing a piece of paper with a Sharpie that one of his handlers puts in front of him. That phone call had to be horrible, Trump trying to explain to a mom he is setting her son that he knows nothing about, free because he once said he would to a large group of people he wants to grift.

Because 0% he knows the guy’s name, who he was, or why he was in prison.

Edit - autocorrect =(

permalink
report
parent
reply
12 points

I mean, I’m just going to go with the most obvious grift. Ulbricht is going to go right back to operating a crypto street pharmacy. Hell, he’ll do it on the open web now. He’ll call it “The New Silk Road” or similar.

And then there’s an agreement for the feds to not go after them. In exchange, Ulbricht uses a good portion of his earnings to become the largest single investor in Trumpcoin ever. If asked, the feds can either ignore the question or hide behind some fig leaf excuse they come up with.

It’s not like Trump didn’t run blatant undeniable cons in the last administration.

permalink
report
parent
reply
33 points

permalink
report
parent
reply
46 points

Yeah, it’s insane that he’s just openly being like, “I promise to use the powers of my office to solely benefit myself,” and the Supreme Court’s just like, “Get it, grrrrrl”

Although, to be fair, it did also benefit a guy who tried to murder five people.

permalink
report
parent
reply
22 points

He was never convicted on murders for hire, charges were dropped

permalink
report
parent
reply
117 points

“The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me.”

He called Ulbricht’s prison sentence “ridiculous.”

I clearly recall Trump being president from 2016-2020, Ulbricht was sentenced to life without parole in 2015.

If it was so ridiculous, why didn’t he pardon him on his first term? What changed to make it such an immediate priority now?

permalink
report
reply
75 points

Because he needed the libertarian vote this time in order to win. Its a very cheap promise that guarantees votes and doesnt alienate anyone that doesnt care. Honestly, the fact that he followed through suprises me.

“But why didnt he need the libertarian vote in 16?”

Because he never intended to win the first time. The first run was a fluke. He wanted to play victim and run the media circuit for profit.

permalink
report
parent
reply
43 points

Back then he thought Bitcoin was bad and a scam. This time someone showed him how to make money by creating a scam coin and doing a pump and dump, so now he’s pro Bitcoin. So pro he’ll get rid of all regulation so pump and dump scams are completely legal.

permalink
report
parent
reply
16 points

Imagine how many times he was asked:

“Why don’t you have your own “Bitcoin” coin yet, Mr. President?”

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

I bet Trump is still anti Bitcoin. Under the previous administration, the SEC applied the Howey Test to cryptocurrencies and would have identified Trump Coin as a security. Trump is only interested if he can be in charge of it.

permalink
report
parent
reply
-2 points

Trump doesn’t need to think about re-election this time around so he has more political freedom.

permalink
report
parent
reply
70 points

Tough on drugs… For people who aren’t white

permalink
report
reply
13 points

Someone should really convince him to legalise all drugs to stick it to the cartels.

permalink
report
parent
reply
61 points

Wow, holy fuck, I never thought it’d happen. Even a broken clock is right twice a day I guess.

This dude is about to have a very lucrative career.

permalink
report
reply
-1 points

You’re saying it’s the right move to release a man convicted of (I believe) several counts of attempted murder?

permalink
report
parent
reply
12 points

Absolutely, free Ross.

I’m not a trump fan

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

The dude’s a clown. Get better role models.

permalink
report
parent
reply
42 points

I remember this guy being a fucking idiot that paid for several fake assassinations of fake rivals. It was pretty funny.

permalink
report
reply
43 points

It is funny in hindsight, knowing the assassinations were a scam. But he thought they were real, he talked in great detail about them and payed for them. This is missing from the article, I believe it was part of his indictment.

permalink
report
parent
reply
22 points

Oh yeah, he’s a piece of shit for sure. I just think it’s funny that he’s also a moron. What kind of drug lord gets a message saying “Hey, I heard of a guy who wants to take you down, wire me a cool mil and I’ll kill him for you, k?” and just… sends the money? More than once?! He definitely tried to rescue an overthrown Nigerian prince as a kid.

permalink
report
parent
reply
10 points

Don’t forget, he was caught because he posted his email in a public forum while advertising the Silk Road. That email address contained his real name.

permalink
report
parent
reply
7 points

Yeah, when I watched a synopsis of the story, multiple alarm bells rang in my head midway through watching it. He’s so gullible for how rich he fucking was

So the twist that was that they were all the same person, didn’t even surprise me, you could see that it was a scam a mile away if you were paying attention

The scammer was pretty good, though, I will give them that. Too bad the scammer was also pretty dumb about how the handle the money after the fact, and got caught lmao.

permalink
report
parent
reply

News

!news@lemmy.world

Create post

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.

Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.

If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.

The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

Community stats

  • 15K

    Monthly active users

  • 24K

    Posts

  • 611K

    Comments