President Donald Trump, as he promised to do, pardoned Ross Ulbright

On Tuesday, President Trump pardoned the man who set up, according to one FBI agent, “the Amazon of drug sites.” As CBS News reported:

President Trump announced Tuesday that he has pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, an underground website that the FBI once called "the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the internet."

Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison in 2015.

Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social, his social media site, that he had spoken to Ulbricht's mother on his first full day in office.

"It was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son, Ross," he wrote. "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."

Ulbricht was serving a life sentence. What had he done to deserve this punishment? From CBS News:

The Silk Road site was set up by Ulbricht in 2011 on the dark web, a part of the internet that's inaccessible to traditional search engines. It did not accept cash or credit cards; users had to pay with cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin. All transactions were encrypted and hence untraceable. It became a place for people to buy and sell illicit drugs, weapons, poisons, and services such as computer hacking.

"Silk Road was the Amazon of drug sites," former FBI Special Agent Milan Patel said in an interview for the CBS News series "FBI Declassified."

"We saw murder-for-hire postings, hacking-for-hire postings, which was, 'hey, pay me two bitcoin and I'll hack into your ex-wife or ex-husband's email account,'" Patel said. ". . . It was totally anonymous. And you could never trace it back to the person who asked for it."

Ulbricht ran the site until his arrest in 2013, when it was seized by the FBI. During his trial, prosecutors said at least six deaths were traced to overdoses from drugs bought on Silk Road. They alleged that Ulbricht collected $18 million through commissions on tens of thousands of drug sales, and presented evidence alleging he sought to have people killed for threatening his business.

Can you imagine the outcry had a President Joe Biden done anything close to this?

Capito and Morrisey

Throughout last year’s presidential election campaign, WV Senator Shelley Moore Capito regularly blamed Biden for our drug problems:

Our wide open southern border has detrimental effects in all 50 states.

The #BidenBorderCrisis and the failures of “Border Czar” Kamala Harris have led to a rise in crime and a deadly flow of drugs into our communities.

We must secure our border. pic.twitter.com/72IECR7fQk

— Shelley Moore Capito (@SenCapito) November 3, 2024

And running for governor, Patrick Morrisey made stemming the flow of illegal drugs an important part of his campaign for governor:

🚨 NEW TV Ad 🚨
The Biden/Harris open border policies are pouring deadly fentanyl into WV. As your governor, I’ll fight to stop fentanyl at the state line and keep our communities safe. That’s why I’m proud to have President Trump’s endorsement—together, we'll make America great… pic.twitter.com/hcJj7DbEQJ

— Patrick Morrisey (@MorriseyWV) October 10, 2024

So how have they reacted to Trump’s pardon of Ross Ulbricht? First, it should be noted that they were warned: last May, Trump addressed a libertarian convention and promised to pardon January 6 defendants and commute Ulbricht’s sentence:

Trump: If you vote for me, I will commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht pic.twitter.com/oAKgWsV40W

— Acyn (@Acyn) May 26, 2024

Since Wednesday, I have been looking for comments about the Ulbricht pardon by Capito or Morrisey. I have found none. Additionally, I have searched for comments by WV’s new senator, Jim Justice, and the state’s new representative, Riley Moore. Both came up empty. (Perhaps, related: Justice received over $3 million in campaign contributions while Moore got over $700,000 from the crypto industry.)

Will any WV reporter dare ask any of these politicians about the President’s pardon of this convicted drug dealer? Don’t bet on it.

Moving on: Senator Capito on Trump’s pardon of the January 6 defendants

From the Associated Press:

Moving beyond the attack on the Capitol — and downplaying its violence — have become a central approach for congressional Republicans who have enthusiastically re-embraced Trump after his 2020 defeat and his attempts to overturn Biden’s win. And the muted GOP response to his sweeping pardons of both non-violent and violent Jan. 6 rioters was another display of their longtime strategy of praising Trump when they agree and ignoring him when they don’t.

“We’re looking forward and beyond on other policy issues,” said West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a member of Republican leadership.

Capito also discussed the use of pardon power Wednesday on MetroNews’ “Talkline”:

“You know the President has a pardon prerogative himself. That is a purely executive authority. You saw former President Biden now really expand that authority,” Capito said. The president, this president, has pardoned all the January Six (defendants). I thought he was going to be doing more of a targeted pardoning.

“And I’ve read where some of the police officers here at the Capitol, police, their families feel that they’ve been dealt an injustice, and I understand why they feel that way. Any violence against a police officer or an officer of the law, I think needs to be put in a different category.”

Capito concluded, “So, you know, it’s his prerogative. He did it, and I think we just need to move on.”

Perhaps. I think that one of Donald Trump’s greatest strengths as a politician has been his ability to strip another politician of their self-respect. In this case, does WV’s senior senator have any left?
Yes, by all means, Senator, move on -- that’s all you can do.