Trump defends pardons for January 6 rioters

He did not have to do this. He had a lot of opposition within his own party,

Pierce said

I’m just a working man, dude. People like us don't get presidential pardons,

Loftus said

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,

Trump said in his post online on Tuesday evening

I wanted to empower people to make choices in their lives and have privacy and anonymity,

Ulbricht said at his sentencing in May 2015.

Thank you for keeping your word to me and others who have been advocating for Ross' freedom,

said the Kentucky lawmaker

Make no mistake: Ulbricht was a drug dealer and criminal profiteer who exploited people’s addictions and contributed to the deaths of at least six young people.”

Manhattan attorney during that time Preet Bharara said

I just called the mother of Ross William Ulbricht to let her know that in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly, it was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son,

the president wrote on Truth Social

If you vote for me, on Day 1 I will commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht to a sentence of time served,

Trump said at the time

Ulbricht went from hiding his cybercrime identity to becoming the face of cybercrime and as today’s sentence proves, no one is above the law,

Bharara said

What you did was unprecedented,

now-former U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest said in sentencing Ulbricht

Ross Ulbricht has been a libertarian political prisoner for more than a decade. I’m proud to say that saving his life has been one of our top priorities and that has finally paid off,

McArdle added

Each president has a prerogative ... I may not agree with all of it,

she told CNN

We really don’t know what happened because we never got the truth out of anybody,

said Susan Jones from Florida

Nobody really burned anything down or destroyed anything beyond repair,

said Jason Malsack from Wisconsin

I violated my probation... I was outside of my area,

he told AFP

They brutally attacked me and my colleagues,

he told CNN

Freedom!" ... We love you!"

At one point on Tuesday, two men did emerge from the Washington prison and the crowd surged toward them, shouting

I want my brothers out,

he told reporters

They pounded on our cell door with a flashlight and said, ‘Get ready cos you’re getting out of here’,

he said

I spent the last four years of my life petrified that they were gonna kick in my door,

she said