"Donald Trump is a man of his word," the Silk Road founder said in a video published on X hours after release from prison.

Until, of course, in 2013 the Silk Road was shut down by FBI agents and Mr Ulbricht, then 29 years old, was arrested in the science-fiction section of a San Francisco public library. In 2015, after a four-week trial,

In 2015, a federal judge in Manhattan sentenced Ulbricht to life in prison for drug trafficking, computer hacking and money laundering.