US President Donald Trump said he had signed a full and unconditional pardon for Ross Ulbricht, who ran Silk Road, a dark web marketplace where illegal drugs were sold.
Ulbricht was convicted in 2015 in New York in a drug and money laundering conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison.
Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he called Ulbricht's mother to inform her that he had granted her son a pardon.
Silk Road, which was shut down in 2013 after police arrested Ulbricht, sold illegal drugs using Bitcoin, as well as hacking equipment and stolen passports.
“The scum who worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who participated in weaponizing the modern-day government against me,” Trump said in his online post Tuesday evening. “He was sentenced to life in prison, plus 40 years. It's ridiculous!”
Ulbricht was convicted of charges including conspiracy to commit drug trafficking, money laundering and computer hacking.
During his trial, prosecutors said Ulbricht's website, hosted on the hidden 'dark web', sold more than $200m (£131m) worth of drugs without revealing his identity.
He ran Silk Road under the alias Dread Pirate Roberts, a reference to a character in the 1987 film The Princess Bride.
Prosecutors said he also requested six murders-for-hire, including one against a former Silk Road employee, though they said there was no evidence any killings were actually carried out.
The Silk Road took its name from the historical trade routes extending through Europe, Asia, and parts of Africa.
The site has achieved notoriety through media reports and online chatter. But users can only access the site through Tor, a system that allows people to use the web without revealing their identity or the country they are in.
Court documents released by the FBI said the site had fewer than 1 million registered users, but investigators said they did not know how many were active.
Judgment on Ulbricht – who has two university degrees – District Judge Katherine Forrest said he was “no better person than any other drug dealer.”
She said the site was his “carefully planned life's work.”
The judge noted that the lengthy sentence was a message to copycats that there would be “very serious consequences.”
“I wanted to empower people to make choices in their lives and have privacy and anonymity,” Ulbricht said at his sentencing in May 2015.
Trump previously hinted that he intended to commute Ulbricht's sentence during a speech last year at the Liberal National Convention.
The Liberal Party had been calling for Ulbricht's release and said his case was an example of government overreach.
Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, a Trump ally, praised the president's decision.
“Thank you for keeping your word for me and others who defended Ross’s freedom,” the Kentucky representative said.
