Deep Web Page #10

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due to these allegations,

they would not allow Ross's defense to

know the identities of their witnesses.

The defense responded that using

these uncharged crimes

in these manner was

prejudicial.

A hearing was called

to resolve the matter.

The judge ruled that some of the witnesses

won't be made available to the defense

until right before the trial.

It's based on her saying

that Ross might intimidate

or even murder people,

um, from jail.

When all this

first happened, I said,

well, it would still have been

necessary to say that, well,

this man's a murderer and,

and he was only out for his own gain.

And you know, he had...

what do you call it,

a callous disregard for human life.

It's necessary to paint a figure that way

rather than to make him,

you know, a martyr of the...

the war on drugs.

I think that's just good planning.

I think it's gonna be difficult, um,

to have a fair trial.

If you are innocent until proven guilty,

then with all the evidence

and all the stories

that have been written,

I think it's gonna be really difficult to...

to find people who are not influenced by...

by any of this

at all going into it.

The day before the trial,

Ross provided a written statement.

It was the closest anyone would

ever get to an actual interview.

Ross Ulbricht went on trial today.

A jury will decide a case

- that could impact the future of internet

privacy. - Good evening to you.

Opening arguments taking place today,

and the first witness took the stand

and actually just got

off a few minutes ago,

a Homeland Security

investigation special agent

who testified saying that,

"Thousands of envelopes of drugs... "

I think everyone was surprised

that Ross Ulbricht and his lawyers

took this to trial in the first place

instead of just taking a plea deal

like pretty much everyone expected.

And today, we saw why,

which is that they've actually

got a pretty compelling

alternate narrative of how this

whole case has played out.

The story that Dratel is

telling that Ross did create

the Silk Road, which is an

amazing admission to begin with,

and that the real operator of the Silk Road,

the Dread Pirate Roberts, framed him.

It's a kind of theory that

I never heard posed before,

that instead of Ross being the Dread

Pirate Roberts, he was framed by him.

But in many ways, you know,

it's something I should've expected

because it's what the

Dread Pirate Roberts told me

when I interviewed him in July of 2013

that he didn't create the Silk Road,

that he had inherited it from its creator,

kind of like a business acquisition.

The FBI has told me that that

was Ross Ulbricht lying to me.

If it is a lie, it would

require just a lot of...

a lot of foresight and planning,

kind of like the...

you know, an amazing game

of chess or something.

In the first days of the trial, the

prosecution presented evidence that Ross

kept a journal on his laptop

describing his involvement

in the Silk Road and that the

Bitcoins seized from his laptop

came directly from the site.

While the defense would argue

that Ross abandoned

the Silk Road after creating

it and that the journal

and the Bitcoin were

planted on his laptop.

Andy, you interviewed

the Dread Pirate Roberts.

What's the evidence connecting

Dread Pirate Roberts to Ulbricht directly?

Well, in the first couple

of weeks of this trial,

which is ongoing now, we've seen that

the prosecution has a very strong case.

Once they seized his laptop,

they found that he had kept a journal.

- If this is, in fact, Ulbricht's journal.

His defense claims it's not. - Right.

He documented the administration

of this site for years.

He has a log book

of daily activities.

So this is a really tight

case that's gonna be

very difficult for Ulbricht to...

to squeeze out of it.

Underneath, in the deep web,

we have an area

where this young man,

according to the government,

has made a decision that

he's going to run

an illegal drug empire

and we need to stop you,

swift and certain prosecution,

and ultimate certain punishment.

As the trial continued, Dratel planned to

reveal the government's own evidence

showed they suspected multiple

people of running the Silk Road.

During his cross examination of

DHS agent Der-Yeghiayan,

Dratel was able to expose that

the agent had long suspected

another person to be

the Dread Pirate Roberts,

going so far as to seek

a warrant for this suspect.

The protection protested this

entire line of questioning

on the grounds that

it was hearsay.

The judge sided with the prosecution, and

Dratel was no longer allowed to question

government witnesses

about alternate suspects

that came from the government's

own evidence.

When the time came for Dratel

to begin his defense,

he intended to use expert witnesses

to explain that the complex technology

behind encryption and cryptocurrency

made it difficult to prove

that the journal and the

Bitcoin belonged to Ross.

The prosecution objected

to these witnesses,

claiming they should have been

made known earlier in the trial

and they were not necessary for

the jury's understanding of the case.

Once again, the judge sided

with the prosecution,

stating that this case did not

require specialized knowledge.

Without expert witnesses

and unable to pursue

the government's own evidence

of an alternate DPR,

Dratel's entire defense

was effectively blocked.

The trial ended abruptly

the next day.

The trial of Ross Ulbricht raised

more questions than it answered.

Did we really know the full

truth of the Silk Road case?

Would this case set a precedent

for the warrantless search of

Americans' digital property?

Whatever the ultimate outcome,

it was clear that

the fall of the Silk Road was not the

end of a chapter, but the beginning.

And the movement to create tools

and services for online privacy

- is stronger than ever.

- The trial of Silk Road mastermind

Ross Ulbricht concluded

when a jury found him guilty

on seven different counts that

included three drug charges

as well as computer hacking,

money laundering

and even a kingpin charge of

continuing a criminal enterprise.

Ulbricht faces a minimum

of 30 years behind bars,

but his defense plans

to appeal this decision.

Anyone here, all of us, are going

to be judged by things for which

there is no attribution in real life.

There's only attribution on the internet

for things to be created,

codified, edited, moved, hacked.

- Was it a fair trial?

- No, I don't think so.

As the actual verdict was read,

the word "guilty" was said seven times.

Ross was just staring straight ahead.

I don't know what was on his face.

But afterwards he turned

back to look at his family

and he had this really heartbreaking

kind of stoic smile.

And he was just...

he wasn't crying,

but he was just blinking...

like blinking hard.

And, uh, then as he was led

away, his mom said,

"This is not the end. "

You know...

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