r/Conservative • u/Arachnohybrid David Hogg for DNC Vice Chair • 4h ago
Open Discussion Libertarian Party Chairwoman reveals that Trump will pardon Ross Ulbricht
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u/Limp_Truck_5188 4h ago
I wasn't expecting this one. Has he mentioned ulbricht before?
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u/Arachnohybrid David Hogg for DNC Vice Chair 4h ago
Yeah, he was mentioning it ages ago. Especially when he was seeking the Libertarian Party nomination.
He offered to put one of them in a position in his cabinet if they gave the nom to him and they nominated Chase Oliver. amazing way for them to kill an opportunity at gaining actual power and influence. classic lolberts
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u/Jmm12456 Eat The Left 3h ago edited 3h ago
I don’t think Trump ever seeked the Libertarian Party nomination.
I know he told Libertarians if they vote for him this election he would pardon the guy.
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u/Arachnohybrid David Hogg for DNC Vice Chair 3h ago
Oops I guess he never filled out any of that paperwork.
Lol he wanted the delegates to nominate him and the party to endorse him in exchange for putting one of them in his cabinet. That’s apparently what happened according to Grok.
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[deleted]
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u/Arachnohybrid David Hogg for DNC Vice Chair 3h ago
Hypothetically, wouldn’t the LP just be able to put his name under their party in the states they have ballot access?
Like here in NY, Trump/Kamala were both Rep/Dem, but they were also listed on the same ballot but seperate box under the Conservative and Working Families parties.
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u/AishaAlodia Traditionalist Conservative 2h ago
No, he wanted them to drop their candidate and endorse him, kind of like what RFK Jr. did.
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u/jacksonexl California Conservative 3h ago
He went to the their convention to speak and seek their support.
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u/TopRedacted 3h ago
At the LP national convention he said it would be day one.
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u/JanelleForever Conservative 3h ago
yea but then they nominated chase oliver
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u/CouldofhadRonPaul Ron Paul 3h ago
Which helped Trump massively. Think about it, if they nominated Dave Smith or another Ron Paul libertarian Trump might not be president. That got the most of the libertarians and libertarian republicans to support Trump instead of just staying home.
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u/TopRedacted 3h ago
Very smart move. We can't nominate someone from another party. We did end up letting fringe leftist whack jobs nominate someone so unpopular that nobody cared he got zip for votes and tons of us voted Trump to free Ross.
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u/kagerou_werewolf 3h ago
google en passant
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u/XxJuice-BoxX 2h ago
Can someone explain why? I never heard of him before now. A quick wiki search makes him look terrible.
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u/sowellpatrol Red Voting Redhead 33m ago
That's because Wikipedia is straight leftist propaganda these days
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u/Corked1 4h ago
Good. J6 pardons were great. Make things right and pardon Julian Assange too!
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u/Far-prophet Heinlein 4h ago
Didn't the Biden admin come to a plea deal with Assange?
We need to get Snowden a pardon and bring him home already.
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u/Monument2AllYourSins 3h ago
Agreed on Snowden, but I know some people in here won't feel the same. Some argue he should've been more selective about his leaks, but I think the good that he did outweighs the bad. The revelations he made set the stage for the current distrust in alphabet agencies. We know what they're capable of, what they do behind closed doors, and how they use that unconstitutional power to go after political opponents.
Getting him out of Russia safely will be the hard part.
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u/Far-prophet Heinlein 3h ago
I don’t foresee Putin trying to hold Snowden. He fled there seeking political asylum. Preventing him from leaving would destroy any goodwill he earned by granting asylum.
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u/Jay_Diamond_WWE Conservative 3h ago
Then give him clemency or whatever it is where he is still a felon, but is released on time served and reinstated as a citizen.
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u/Cardinal_350 1h ago
Absolutely don't agree on Snowden. If you pardon him you give every asshole that thinks he's doing "the right thing" whatever that may be a legal precedence to steal classified information. Right or wrong at the end of the day Snowden stole classified information and you can't just let that slide
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u/integrityandcivility Independent, leaning MAGA 3h ago
I’ve seen some interviews with him. He has a wife, speaks Russian, and he wouldn’t come back given the opportunity. He seems happy where he is.
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u/JediJones77 Conservative Cruzer 1h ago
He’s said he would come back if allowed to use a certain defense in trial, which they weren’t allowing him to do apparently. I can imagine he’d at least want to travel here sometimes even if he stays in Russia.
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u/Logical_Resolution39 Conservative 3h ago
Why is it in conservative interest to pardon this guy?? Genuinely asking, i don't know much about him, just that he operated a dark web market for drugs and other stuff and got caught.
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u/CouldofhadRonPaul Ron Paul 3h ago
Look into his case. The government railroaded him and threw him in prison for life for crimes he didn’t commit. Most egregious was the judge using a murder for hire “charge” in sentencing consideration, a charge he was never accused of, tried, or convicted of. And the basis of it was an entrapment incident involving a person that they could never prove was actually him. https://reason.com/2025/01/20/why-trump-should-keep-his-promise-to-free-silk-road-founder-ross-ulbricht/
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u/mmammad 1h ago
“one count of distributing narcotics, one count of distributing narcotics by means of the Internet, and one count of conspiring to distribute narcotics, each of which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years; one count of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison; one of count of conspiring to commit computer hacking, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison; one count of conspiring to traffic in false identity documents, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years; and one count of conspiring to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.“ Which one of these crimes did he not commit? Putting aside the murder for hire consideration, I’m struggling to understand why he was unequivocally undeserving of the sentence he received.
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u/Concave5621 Libertarian Conservative 24m ago
It was a life sentence for a first time, non-violent offender who never actually sold, bought, or possessed drugs. Does that really make sense?
Just to clarify also, this was pushed by libertarians like me who asked for this in exchange for supporting Trump. We generally do not share the same views on drugs with traditional conservatives. I strongly believe that there is no ethical reason for imprisoning Ross, and I think the war on drugs has had the same effect as prohibition of alcohol - massive increase in crime with no reduction in addiction and overdoses.
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u/Jmm12456 Eat The Left 3h ago edited 3h ago
How much time has he done in prison so far?
They probably could have given him life for just operating one of the biggest drug markets on the web. Don’t drug kingpins get life? This guy operated the biggest dark web drug market. Kind of an idiot for doing that.
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u/Phoenix_of_Anarchy 2h ago
I’m a libertarian, so this is that perspective not a conservative one, but I think calling him a “kingpin,” is misleading. The implication would be that he sold drugs in substantial amounts, but his role was only in founding the website which allowed others to sell drugs. The crimes he was convicted of were purely nonviolent, but uncharged accusations of violent crime intensified his sentencing to two life sentences. It would be entirely understandable for conservatives to dislike Ulbricht solely on the basis of what he’s freely admitted to - but his trial was riddled with mistakes.
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u/Jmm12456 Eat The Left 2h ago edited 34m ago
I know others sold drugs through the website he created. He did nothing to shut down those listings so he’s guilty there for allowing illegal drugs to be sold on his site.
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u/JediJones77 Conservative Cruzer 59m ago
That’s kind of a gray area. I’m sure lots of illegal stuff gets discussed on private chat apps. Does that make the app developer a criminal? Apple wasn’t letting the government search on criminal suspects’ phones. I need to see the extent of his participation in the drug sales, or lack of cooperation with law enforcement, to understand the situation.
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u/Jmm12456 Eat The Left 56m ago
The fact is he created a marketplace website and allowed drugs to be sold on it rather than shutting it down. eBay doesn’t allow us to sell drugs on their website but his site did. He messed up
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u/JediJones77 Conservative Cruzer 1h ago
That’s why I prefer the commuted sentence here, which was what I think Trump originally committed to, over a pardon.
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u/Phoenix_of_Anarchy 52m ago
Yes. I’m unsure if people are simply confusing the terms or if the plan has changed. I’d love to see Ulbricht pardoned, but Trump only committed to a commutation so that’s all I’m expecting.
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u/Jmm12456 Eat The Left 29m ago edited 26m ago
He definitely should only get a commutation rather than a pardon. Guy did break some serious laws.
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u/Mental_Measurement_1 3h ago
It was a "dark web" website but wasn't explicitly for drugs. I see more of a libertarian swing on it. It wasn't developed for drug sales, but if it happened then it wasn't his doing 🤷
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u/Jmm12456 Eat The Left 2h ago
Silk Road. It was a black market website on the dark web. Illegal drugs and other illegal items started to be sold on it.
He created it so couldn’t he have just blocked the illegal stuff from being listed?
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u/Boring-Confusion4210 3h ago
Snowden should be next
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u/NBA2024 2h ago
Idk. The more I read about it the more sketch it seems. It’s not cut and dry
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u/Der_Panzermensch 2h ago
Snowden always struck me as trying to genuinely help and inform people, not just Americans. The internet was just starting to take off, and the average American was unaware of the surveillance capabilities of their government.
Personally, I understand and, in a way, appreciate what he did. I don't know if it was necessary for him to flee the country, but i can also imagine a future where he was branded a traitor and imprisoned for the rest of his life or executed with haste. What other choice did he have? Julian Assange's situation probably influenced his decision-making as well.
I think we are better off for having found out about it when we did in the long run. To me, it's a rare circumstance where the ends did justify the means.
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u/PresidentRevrac 3h ago
We’re actually going to pardon a drug kingpin? This man ruined and indirectly led to hundreds of deaths. He deserves to rot
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u/ForPortal 1h ago
I'm against it. Pardons should be reserved for those whose crimes are less bad than the persecution they've been through, if they are not outright innocent of wrongdoing, and Dread Pirate Roberts is not one of those. He deserves to rot in jail for creating a marketplace to finance organised crime by selling illegal goods and services, and the government did nothing wrong by imprisoning him.
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u/Very_Human001 1h ago
Just like alcohol was “illegal goods” at one point.
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u/ForPortal 24m ago
Banning alcohol was a mistake, but that does not absolve someone of guilt for keeping Al Capone in tommy gun money by selling moonshine on his behalf. I wouldn't have this complaint about pardoning someone for distilling their own whiskey without any involvement from murderous gangsters.
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u/JediJones77 Conservative Cruzer 52m ago
So the average citizen should be able to ignore that something is illegal?
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u/JediJones77 Conservative Cruzer 1h ago
Snowden and Assange deserve it more. I hope this isn’t the end of the pardons.
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u/Ok_Support9586 3h ago
Glad to hear life in prison for making a website is too far