Fact Check: Yes, Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, founder of Silk Road dark web marketplace
Claim:
U.S. President Donald Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the creator of dark web marketplace Silk Road.
Rating:
Ross Ulbricht, formerly known online by the pseudonym "Dread Pirate Roberts" (a nod to the novel "The Princess Bride"), is known today as the founder of the Silk Road marketplace, a former site on the dark web notorious for selling illicit drugs, among other products.
Since Donald Trump retook office in January 2025, social media users have suggested that the president's hard line immigration policies and rhetoric about migrants being "criminals" or "drug dealers" are hypocritical because on Jan. 21, 2025, his second day back in the White House, Trump issued Ulbricht a full and complete pardon following his arrest and imprisonment in 2013 and 2015, respectively, for drug trafficking, computer hacking and money laundering.
For example, one Facebook user shared a meme that claimed the president pardoned Ulbricht and added: "Who's letting criminals and drug dealers loose in our country?"
(Facebook user Raymond Wynn)
This rumor is indeed true. Trump posted about the pardon on his social media platform, Truth Social, and it was reported by reputable news media outlets like Axios and the BBC. Federal documentation also confirmed the grant of clemency (archived).
(Whether the Silk Road sold fentanyl, as claimed in the above meme, is unconfirmed. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] data on drug overdoses suggest that fentanyl did not become prevalent until after Silk Road closed in 2013. But the site was notorious for selling vast swathes of drugs.)
Ulbricht created the Silk Road site, accessible only using specific software that could connect to the dark web, in January 2011. He ran its cryptocurrency-based marketplace until October 2013, when it was shut down by federal authorities and he was arrested.
The BBC reported that in the two and a half years it was operational, users sold more than $200 million in drugs through the site, which also offered fake IDs and hacking tools. "It's kinda earned the reputation as the eBay of drugs," cybersecurity researcher Brian Krebs reportedly told NPR in 2013, following Ulbricht's arrest.
In 2015, Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison by a federal judge for drug trafficking, computer hacking and money laundering as part of the Silk Road operations. In a 2015 news release from the Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara called Ulbricht "a drug dealer and criminal profiteer who exploited people's addictions and contributed to the deaths of at least six young people."
Ulbricht attended Trump's 2025 State of the Union address, according to a post he made on X.
— Snopes' archives contributed to this report.
Abuse, National Institute on Drug. Drug Overdose Deaths: Facts and Figures | National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). 21 Aug. 2024, https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates.
Clarke, Amelia. "Yes, Trump Pardoned Creator of 'Silk Road' Dark Web Marketplace, Ross Ulbricht." Snopes, 9 Mar. 2025, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/trump-pardoned-silk-road-founder/.
---. "Yes, Trump Pardoned Ross Ulbricht, Creator of 'Silk Road' Dark Web Marketplace." Snopes, 23 Jan. 2025, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/trump-ross-ulbricht-pardon/.
Dozens of 'Dark Market' Websites Seized as Part of Silk Road 2.0 Investigation | ICE. 6 Nov. 2014, https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/dozens-dark-market-websites-seized-part-silk-road-20-investigation.
Habeshian, Sareen. "Trump Pardons Silk Road Creator Ross Ulbricht." Axios, 21 Jan. 2025, https://www.axios.com/2025/01/22/trump-ross-ulbricht-silk-road.
Hu, Elise. "The Man Behind The Shadowy Illicit Drug Market, Silk Road." NPR, 3 Oct. 2013. NPR, https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2013/10/03/228579712/the-man-behind-the-shadowy-illicit-drug-market-silk-road.
Neuman, Scott. "FBI Arrests Alleged Owner Of 'Silk Road' Black Market Site." NPR, 2 Oct. 2013. NPR, https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/10/02/228491496/fbi-arrests-owner-of-black-market-site-silk-road.
'No Safe Harbor for Illegal Immigrant Criminals Under President Trump'. The White House, 14 Apr. 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/04/no-safe-harbor-for-illegal-immigrant-criminals-under-president-trump/.
"Silk Road Drug Website Founder Ross Ulbricht Jailed." BBC News, 29 May 2015. www.bbc.com, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32941060.
'Silk Road: How FBI Closed in on Suspect Ross Ulbricht'. BBC News, 2 Oct. 2013. www.bbc.co.uk, https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-24371894.
'Trump Pardons Silk Road Creator Ross Ulbricht'. BBC News, 22 Jan. 2025, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz7e0jve875o.
U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York. Ross Ulbricht, A/K/A "Dread Pirate Roberts," Sentenced In Manhattan Federal Court To Life In Prison. 29 May 2015, https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/ross-ulbricht-aka-dread-pirate-roberts-sentenced-manhattan-federal-court-life-prison.
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