In December 2023, Angela McArdle, the chairwoman of the Libertarian Party, flew to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Donald J. Trump.
Mr. Trump wanted to know how to win over libertarian voters, a constituency he thought could help him regain the presidency, Ms. McArdle said in an interview. She had an answer: Free Ross Ulbricht, a Bitcoin pioneer who was sentenced to life in prison in 2015 for creating Silk Road, the world’s largest online drug market. Mr. Ulbricht was hailed as a libertarian hero for building an illegal market beyond the government’s reach.
“I like to set people free,” Mr. Trump said, according to Ms. McArdle. Five months later, she hosted him at the national convention of the Libertarian Party, where he announced on stage that, if elected to the presidency, he would release Mr. Ulbricht.
On Tuesday, the day after his inauguration, Mr. Trump made that promise. He called the mother of Mr. Ulbricht, Lyn Ulbricht, to tell her in person that she had fully forgiven her son, who is now 40 years old. In a post on Social Truth, Mr. Trump said the decision was “in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly.”
Forgiveness of Mr. Ulbricht was not a clear agenda item for Mr. Trump. Unlike the nearly 1,600 people who received pardons or commutations this week for their involvement in the Jan. 6 riots, Mr. Ulbricht had little direct contact with the president. But the measure had been in the works for a long time, after more than a decade of activism by supporters of Mr. Ulbricht – including cryptocurrency investors, libertarian politicians and especially Ms. Ulbricht, who was a vocal supporter of her son’s release.
Many of them have enjoyed an unusual level of access to Mr. Trump. As it became clear last year that Mr Trump would be the Republican nominee, they waged a behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign to secure a pardon – including promising to raise money for his election bid – in what has turned into a case study of how a special interest group can be mobilized to influence the president.
Ms. McArdle said she was put in touch with Mr. Trump by Richard Grenell, one of his longtime advisers and a former acting director of national intelligence, who suggested she treat conversations with Mr. Trump as a business negotiation.
“Ric was like, ‘He’s a deal-maker, Angela,'” she said. “Don’t be afraid to ask for something.”
Mr. Grenell, Ms. Ulbricht and the Trump administration did not respond to requests for comment.
Forgiveness of Mr. Ulbricht shows that “if you have a concentrated base of people around Trump, you have a very good chance of a pardon,” said Dan Richman, a former federal prosecutor who teaches at Columbia Law School. “There are problems with the pardon system that works this way.”
Mr. Ulbricht launched Silk Road in 2011 and turned it into one of the most popular outposts of the so-called Dark Web, a hidden corner of the Internet that people can only access through a special browser. Silk Road facilitated more than 1.5 million transactions, generating more than $200 million in revenue from the sale of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and other drugs, authorities have said. Users conducted anonymous transactions with Bitcoin, then a nascent cryptocurrency, and could post Amazon-style product reviews.
In 2013, the FBI arrested Mr. Ulbricht in a library in San Francisco and accused him of running the Silk Road. In court, the prosecutors presented evidence that Mr. Ulbricht had also solicited murders of people he considered a threat to the business, although he was never tried on the murder-for-hire charges and there was no indication that any murders had taken place.
At least six deaths were attributed to drugs bought on the Silk Road, prosecutors told the court. A federal judge in the Southern District of New York, where the case was heard, called Mr. In 2015, he received a life sentence for drug distribution, money laundering and other charges, and was eventually transferred to a federal prison in Arizona.
The punishment struck some legal experts as harsh. It also drew protests from libertarians opposed to heavy drug sentencing and crypto enthusiasts who saw Mr. Ulbricht as a pioneer.
Silk Road “got a million people into Bitcoin,” said David Bailey, chief executive of the news publication Bitcoin Magazine, which campaigned for Mr. Ulbricht. “He represents many of the ideological views of our community.”
From prison, Mr. Ulbricht played up his connection to Bitcoin. In October 2018, he sent a letter to his mother celebrating the cryptocurrency’s 10th anniversary and compared himself to a “proud parent” of technology.
“I feel like I’m the estranged father in prison who can’t be there to help raise his child,” he wrote in the letter, which was later published by Bitcoin magazine.
On social media accounts maintained by his family, Mr. Ulbricht also shared artwork, updates on his prison gardening and thoughts on new technologies. The accounts posted links to online petitions asking for clemency, tagging Mr. Trump and members of the Trump family.
Behind the scenes, Ms. Ulbricht worked to popularize the “Free Ross” slogan, which became a rallying cry at crypto conferences. She also reached out to Republican politicians and far-right influencers, hoping to reach Mr. Trump’s inner circle.
After losing the 2020 election, Mr. Trump considered releasing Mr. Ulbricht and at least one lobbyist were paid $22,500 to help secure his release, according to financial filings. But Mr. Trump left office without taking action.
“The higher the hope, the greater the disappointment, and our hopes were high for a change in sentence,” posted the family of Mr. Ulbricht on social media in January 2021.
The new Republican presidential campaign offered a new opportunity.
In 2023, Ms. Ulbricht renewed her efforts to connect with influential Republicans, including Vivek Ramaswamy, who was running for president, two people close to her said. Mr. Ramaswamy, who did not respond to a request for comment, pledged to release Mr. Ulbricht if elected and spoke openly about the meeting with his mother.
Then, at the end of 2023, Mrs. McArdle was contacted by Mr. Grenell, who sought advice on Mr. Trump’s behalf about dealing with the libertarian vote, she said. Soon she was on a plane to Florida to meet Mr. Trump.
At the meeting, Ms. McArdle told Mr. Trump that Mr. Ulbricht was the victim of prosecutorial overreach and a biased criminal justice system, echoing complaints the former president has made since leaving office.
“It’s the same court cases in New York that have been giving you trouble,” she said she told him.
Last year, Mr. Trump and his staff also met with Mr. Bailey and other representatives of Bitcoin Magazine, who called for Mr. Ulbricht. Tracy Hoyos-López, who worked for the magazine, has said publicly that the presentation was organized by Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman. (Ms. Hoyos-López is the daughter of Hector Hoyos, a friend and former business partner of Mr. Manafort.)
On social media, Mr. Bailey announced that he planned to raise a “$100 million war chest for the Trump campaign.” He also went to Mar-a-Lago in June, he said in an interview, where he presented Mr. Trump with a letter from Lyn Ulbricht.
At the time, Mr. Trump had already vowed to release Mr. Ulbricht at the Libertarian Party convention. He doubled down on that promise in July at a conference in Nashville hosted by Bitcoin Magazine, saying he would commute Mr. Ulbricht – allowing him to walk free, but without erasing the conviction. Around that time, Mr. Trump also met privately with Ms. Ulbricht, said Ms. McArdle, who was briefed on the meeting.
Ms McArdle has come under fire from fellow libertarians over her relationship with Mr Trump. But she was still in touch with the new administration last week and urged Mr. Trump to give Mr. Ulbricht a full pardon, not just a discount. “Promises made, promises kept,” a Trump staffer emailed her, according to a copy of the message seen by The New York Times.
On Tuesday evening, Mrs. McArdle, Mr. Bailey and Mrs. Hoyos-López gathered in a live stream on X to wait for updates. Mr. Bailey told listeners that Ms. Ulbricht was in Arizona, preparing for her son’s release.
Within hours of the pardon, an X account controlled by Mr. Ulbricht posted a picture of himself leaving the prison with a small plant and a bag of stuff.
“FREEDOM!!!!” the post said.
Kenneth P. Vogel contributed to the reporting. Susan C. Beachy contributed to research.