It's not just the J6ers who got pardons from Trump:
Ulbricht is the founder of Silk Road, an online platform for large-scale transactions by drug traffickers and other criminals with a need for secrecy. Now, maybe you think that's OK because drugs shouldn't be illegal in the first place. Mileage will vary. But Ulbricht was also accused of contracting to have people killed—though apparently he was duped and the murders never took place.¹ Still, as an appellate court noted, he certainly tried:
DPR [Ulbricht's handle, "Dread Pirate Roberts"] connected with Redandwhite, who was FriendlyChemist’s supplier, and wrote that “FriendlyChemist is a liability and I wouldn’t mind if he was executed.” After negotiating the logistical details of the murder, Ulbricht agreed to pay Redandwhite $150,000 in Bitcoins to kill FriendlyChemist. DPR paid Redandwhite, who later confirmed that he had received the payment and carried out the murder, and sent what appeared to be a photo of the dead victim to DPR. DPR replied that he had “received the picture and deleted it,” and thanked Redandwhite for his “swift action.”
....Later, DPR ordered four other murders through Redandwhite.... One of the government’s expert witnesses was able to link the payments for all five murders to Bitcoin wallets located on Ulbricht’s laptop.
....At the sentencing hearing, the district court resolved several disputed issues of fact. For example, because Ulbricht contested his responsibility for the five commissioned murders for hire, the district court found by a preponderance of the evidence that Ulbricht did in fact commission the murders, believing that they would be carried out. The district court characterized the evidence of the murders for hire, which included Ulbricht’s journal, chats with other Silk Road users, and the evidence showing that Ulbricht actually paid a total of $650,000 in Bitcoins for the killings, as “ample and unambiguous.”
Bygones. Ulbricht is free now, solely because libertarians supported Trump and this is the payoff they asked for. That's how our president operates, ladies and gentlemen.
¹Nor was he tried on these charges. After Ulbricht received two life sentences on the drug charges, it apparently didn't seem worth it.
So how do we know libertarians asked for this?
He went to their convention and promised them he would:
https://www.semafor.com/article/05/25/2024/trump-promises-libertarians-a-cabinet-slot-and-clemency-for-drug-kingpin-ross-ulbricht
Apparenlty they are happy about it. Trump is violently against drugs coming across our borders. Now we know that’s because he wants them to come over the internet.
How comprehensive is the pardon?
You thinking they could try to resurrect the attempted murder charges in 2029?
I haven't followed the case, but I wonder if there might be state charges that could be resurrected.
If he wasn't tried for the contracts, double jeopardy won't stop trying him now, right?
And there is no statute of limitations on this.
And there is no statute of limitations on this. Some career prosecturor should go rogue on this just to find out how much Bondi would charge to quash the prosecution.
Now? Seems unlikely. 2029, perhaps.
For the "now" it would require state charges, assuming a willing state has/had a plausible claim on jurisdiction.
I am pretty sure they could not.
Otherwise the government could just do a separate trial for every separate crime that a criminal committed and be virtually certain of getting a conviction on at least one count.
The whole point of double jeopardy is to avoid this kind of abuse.
Nope. Double jeopardy protects you from being tried twice for the same crime, not being tried separately for two different crimes. The reason prosecutors don't divide up a set of crimes and try them separately is *not* to avoid the concept of double jeopardy, but to (i) save time, effort, and money and (ii) increase the chances of a suitably punitive sentence when they do get a conviction.
What about people who commit multiple murders? The government only needs one conviction to get a multidecade sentence and they already spend millions on these trials. Splitting them in two world be perfectly feasible.
He wasn't tried because the evidence that he intended them was also weak.
The Ulbricht case is an example of two serious issues in the US justice system.
1. Sentences for defendants who go to trial are so harsh compared to offered plea bargains that it calls into question whether defendants are being punished for not playing guilty and whether it is actually infringing on the right to a trial.
2. Judges are allowed to base sentences on crimes that defendants are accused of but that they were not indicted for, did not defend against at trial, and did not admit to. This seems unreasonable and unfair. If the government wanted Ulbricht punished for trying to hire hitmen then it should have prosecuted him for this, his defense should have had the opportunity to defend against the accusation, and he should have been convicted or acquitted of it.
Ulbricht should not have been pardoned but life was too harsh. He deserved Sune kind of commutation.
And by the way, I am amused that Kevin is upset about this but did not even mention the commutation of Leonard Peltier's sentence.
Peltier murdered two FBI agents, but I guess letting him out of protein is OK since Bidden did it.
Peltier is no saint but he did serve 50 years and he is half dead already.
Plenty of murderers who do not become liberal cause celebres die in prison. Peltier should also have died in prison.
He has lived for 50 years after his crimes. His victims died that day.
You might be right about the sentences, but then you demonstrate why they're that way - because someone not-white defended themselves from rapacious investigation, you suddenly think they're fine?
Peltier committed two murders of federal agents. I would prefer the death penalty.
Ulbricht operated an online drug marketplace with willing buyers and sellers. He may have tried to pay for some murders but he was not convicted of that.
Do you really think these two crimes are at the same level of seriousness?
The sad culture warriors are willing to fight literally any battle that Donny sends them on.
What a strange life, getting up each and waiting to be told what to get angry and fired up about.
bizarre
You mean like the people upset about the J6 pardons?
20/20 hindsight notwithstanding that decision doesn't look so good. Not that Trump couldn't pardon a convicted murderer...
It just seems like a loose thread sitting around to later trip over. Like not getting the abortion provisions repealed from the Comstock Act when Roe v Wade was first decided/when the Democrats had the trifecta and/or supermajority.
Libertarian movement.... lol. Does Trump even know what the Libertarian movement is?
Using his Golden Loo and only having to flush once?
I don’t think this is about libertarianism per se. I think it has to do with Ulbricht being a Bitcoin trailblazer. Trump is out to make cryptobros happy.
Now that sounds like Trump. His politics has never had anything to do with politics. Only what or who he can use to achieve a goal.
Biden granted clemency to former Pennsylvania judge, Michael Conahan, which Drum justified because the sentence was too long. 17.5 years. The crimes Ulbicht's was found guilty for were not nearly as bad as Conahan's and Ulbricht received a life sentence.
Yes, the situations are plainly identical. Biden reducing sentences for a whole bunch of people on the stated theory that the sentences were too long is exactly the same as Trump pardoning a single person on the stated rationale that this person supported him politically.
The crimes Ulbicht's was found guilty for were not nearly as bad as Conahan's, which is the salient point.
The crime is attempted murder. Not "would be" murder.