Ulbricht, sentenced to life in prison in 2015, given ‘full and unconditional’ pardon by president
    • xor@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      5·
      1 小时前

      even a broken clock is right twice a day…

      this was probably timed to distract from the whole, nazi salute controversy.

  • twistypencil@lemmy.world
    14·
    7 小时前

    I didn’t even notice that this happened:

    Today, President Biden granted Leonard Peltier executive clemency and commuted the remainder of his sentence.

    • Akasazh@feddit.nl
      7·
      2 小时前

      commuted the remainder of his sentence.

      Commuted it to home fucking arrest, not even full clemancy.

  • Rhoeri@lemmy.worldEnglish
    252·
    10 小时前

    It’s so easy to see who bough his bitcoin “scam” now, isn’t it?

      • Eezyville@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        516·
        7 小时前

        Of course they do. This is how they cope with anything Trump related. They come up with conspiracy theories.

        • Rhoeri@lemmy.worldEnglish
          22·
          40 分钟前

          Soooo…. Do you not know what lawyers and trusts are and what they do? If not, have an adult explain these things to you when you can, and if so….

          Why embarrass yourself wish such an ignorant comment?

        • Spookyghost@sh.itjust.works
          84·
          7 小时前

          Kodak black paid 2mil for a pardon the first time. This is highly likely to be true, you are either uniformed, a bot, or in on the grift.

          • _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            10·
            6 小时前

            Ross was an idiot, that’s why he was caught. They seized all his remaining bitcoin, what hadn’t been stolen by hackers because, again, he was an idiot and the Silk Road was slapped together from code cobbled from other places. There’s no way the dude was smart enough to set some aside for bribes in case he got caught, because he was so sure he wouldn’t that he advertised the Silk Road using his personal email with his real name in forum posts.

            While I don’t think he deserved life in prison, he sure as hell ended up there because of how ridiculously idiotic he was. The dude isn’t smart enough to be a manager at Arby’s, let alone run a criminal enterprise.

            • Sturgist@lemmy.ca
              2·
              44 分钟前

              isn’t smart enough to be a manager at Arby’s

              Hey buddy, chill, there’s almost certainly talented doctors from other countries who couldn’t afford to recertify managing at least 2 Arby’s…and those will be the only 2 you don’t get food poisoning from.

              • _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
                1·
                36 分钟前

                That is completely missing my point. I’m sure there’s literal rocket scientists who have had to work at Arby’s to make ends meet, but that has nothing to do with Ross lacking the intellect to properly manage one. We’re not talking about immigrant doctors in this thread.

          • Eezyville@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            33·
            6 小时前
            1. How did he pay all that money while in prison?
            2. Where are you getting your facts about Ross from besides your ass?
              • Eezyville@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                22·
                1 小时前

                This is incredibly stupid. Prison officials will do everything they can to prevent an inmate from moving around assets for VERY OBVIOUS reasons. But, after thinking about it, it may not be so obvious for this echo chamber so let me explain the obvious.

                You are an inmate in prison. You made millions doing your illegal thing while free but you hare now doing hard time. You don’t like hard time, you want easy or no time. How do you make your life better while in prison. Wait, you have millions. You’ll just use that money to have your way with the guards and prison system. Guard giving you trouble? Use your assets that you’ve amassed to “get rid of them”.

                The prison system has protocols and processes in place to prevent all inmates from being able to control any assets they have on the outside. This prevents them from committing further crimes, exerting influence, or running an enterprise (criminal or legal) while incarcerated.

  • HappySkullsplitter@lemmy.world
    91·
    14 小时前

    “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?

    • Podunk@lemmy.world
      59·
      13 小时前

      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.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
      33·
      13 小时前

      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.

      • parody@lemmings.world
        11·
        13 小时前

        Imagine how many times he was asked:

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

  • stevedice@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    424·
    13 小时前

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

    • owl@infosec.pubEnglish
      39·
      12 小时前

      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.

      • stevedice@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        19·
        11 小时前

        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.

        • _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          7·
          5 小时前

          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.

            • _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
              4·
              3 小时前

              Honestly, the only reason he’s famous at all is because the Silk Road was used to drum up shock by the media, so the government used him as an example to those who would make them look bad. Otherwise, he would have faded into obscurity like every other idiot criminal who stumbled into short term riches.

        • SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          6·
          6 小时前

          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.

  • breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca
    1101·
    15 小时前

    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?

      • TimLovesTech (AuDHD)(he/him)@badatbeing.socialEnglish
        16·
        14 小时前

        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 =(

        • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
          8·
          14 小时前

          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.

      • breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca
        40·
        15 小时前

        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.

  • then_three_more@lemmy.world
    22·
    14 小时前

    Could someone explain like to an non American why the president gets to pardon people at all?

    If someone committed a crime they’re guilty, if there’s new evidence that they’re not guilty then that’s what appeals are for.

    • atzanteol@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      141·
      12 小时前

      My best understanding is that it was a historic right of kings, governors, etc. The idea was to show mercy to those who may have been convicted wrongly, or to people convicted of laws that have been overturned.

      Trump is abusing it in ways never done before to payback political supporters.

      TBF Biden abused it as well in pardoning his son.

    • sudneo@lemm.ee
      8·
      12 小时前

      Just FYI this is not just an American thing. In Italy for example the President of the republic can cancel or amend sentences too, and it does happen relatively often, although not in the same partisan way as in the US (but that’s also because the president in Italy is a neutral and representative position).

      Some example from few years ago when the president graced 33 people (each with a specific articulated motivation) https://www.ilpost.it/2021/12/10/mattarella-grazia-sette-persone-sebastian-oberleteir-heinrich/ (in Italian, but you can translate if you wish).

  • nomy@lemmy.zipEnglish
    594·
    16 小时前

    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.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      43·
      5 小时前

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

              • nomy@lemmy.zipEnglish
                3·
                2 小时前

                We don’t actually know as those charges were dropped. In this country you’re innocent until proven guilty, therefore he’s innocent.

                I’m not making any statements on his personality or character, just that he’s not guilty.

                • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ@lemmy.world
                  2·
                  54 分钟前

                  Absolutely, he is legally innocent of this, as the charges were indeed dropped.

                  However, it’s all publicly documented. You can read the DMs where all of this occurred if you’d like. It includes the transaction IDs and wallets this all occurred. The paper trail is all there. This happened, whether legally recognized or not. I do completely agree with you that he is legally innocent, but the evidence that this happened is overwhelming.

                  The reason he wasn’t found guilty of this specifically is because the prosecution, in the case in which he was found guilty, didn’t even include this in his charges, but instead used it as an example of his character in relation to the charges he did receive. Considering there was no actual murder that took place, they probably felt they had significantly better odds with other charges that they could easily get a guilty verdict (and significant sentence) with. This isn’t uncommon procedure.

                  Meanwhile, the Maryland case in which he was being charged in relation to this, was dropped once he’d already been found guilty in NY and sentenced to two life sentences.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
      9·
      13 小时前

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

    • jagged_circle@feddit.nlEnglish
      8·
      13 小时前

      Then you should probably care about him. He gave people around the world access to medicine that was illegal

      • Glasgow@lemmy.mlEnglish
        12·
        8 小时前

        Silk Road wasn’t the first darknet market ya know. I helped launch the first couple that were .onion prior to Ross, but the movement has been about since the 90s at least and would’ve happened without any of us. We were working on a decentralised version that would’ve been unstoppable but people moved on and got other priorities when SR took all the media attention and spotlight. I’m guessing it’ll emerge out crypto soon now the tech has caught up with the theory.