Former President Trump on Saturday vowed to commute the prison sentence of Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the online drug-selling site Silk Road.
The GOP frontrunner made the pledge while addressing the Libertarian National Convention in Washington, D.C., in a bid to win over skeptical party activists, many of whom held up signs that read: “FREE ROSS.”
“If you vote for me, on day one I will commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht, to a sentence of time served,” Trump said, winning the largest cheers of the night. “He’s already served 11 years. We’re going to get him home.”
During his presidency, Trump considered intervening to release Ulbricht, but ultimately decided against the pardon.
Ulbricht, now 40, was sentenced in 2015 to life in prison by a judge who cited six deaths that resulted from drugs bought on his website and five people he tried to have killed.
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Ulbricht operated the website between 2011 and 2013, when he was arrested.
Trump also pledged that he would protect cryptocurrencies by stopping President Biden’s “crusade to crush crypto.”
“We’re going to stop it. I will ensure that the future of crypto and the future of Bitcoin will be made in the USA, not driven overseas,” Trump said. “I will support the right of self-custody. To the nation’s 50 million crypto holders, I say this: with your vote, I will keep [Senator] Elizabeth Warren and her goons away from your bitcoin. And I will never allow the creation of a central bank digital currency.”
Trump’s appearance was part of an ongoing effort to reach would-be supporters in places that are not heavily Republican.
Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. addressed the convention on Friday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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