Silk Road prosecutors want to ban Ross Ulbricht's libertarian politics in court
Prosecutors in the case against alleged Silk Road mastermind Ross Ulbricht want the court to prohibit Ulbricht from saying almost anything political at all, according to a motion filed last week by the government.
They're worried that the jury might end up sympathizing with Ulbricht's politics.
U.S. attorney Preet Bharara believes that Ulbricht's defense team wants to bring up his "views concerning the propriety of U.S. or international drug laws or the propriety of government regulation of individual conduct or commerce on the Internet" in order to convince the jury to excuse his alleged criminal behavior.
Ulbricht's political views are "plainly not relevant," prosecutors say, adding that they would "serve only to invite jury nullification and should therefore be excluded" and they "cannot form the basis for a legal defense."
Actually, they can.
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