Reports from news agency Reuters, backed up by a similar report in the New York Post, has indicated that Donald Trump may be considering giving a pardon to former spy, Edward Snowden.
Snowden, who was a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee, leaked to the press details of the activities of the National Security Agency who were unlawfully spying on millions of innocent Americans. He then fled first to Hong Kong and then later to Russia where he sought asylum and where he has been living for the last 7 years.
Many regard Snowden as a traitor who leaked confidential information about the US intelligence program while others regard him as a patriotic whistle-blower who made millions of innocent US citizens, and citizens in other countries, aware that their privacy was being invaded.
According to Reuters Trump said he was "going to start looking at" a possible pardon for Snowden, while Trump told The Post that "a lot of people" think that Snowden "is not being treated fairly."
This isn't the first time that discussion has arisen regarding a pardon for Snowden. Snowden responded to Trump's remarks on twitter saying:
"The last time we heard a White House considering a pardon was 2016, when the very same Attorney General who once charged me conceded that, on balance, my work in exposing the NSA's unconstitutional system of mass surveillance had been 'a public service."
The last time we heard a White House considering a pardon was 2016, when the very same Attorney General who once charged me conceded that, on balance, my work in exposing the NSA's unconstitutional system of mass surveillance had been "a public service." https://t.co/fAseViVwAx
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) August 14, 2020
Under US law, it is perfectly acceptable for a president to grant pardons and reprieves for those they believe were wrongly convicted, or who they believe were punished unduly. Indeed, Trump has already handed out 26 reprieves since he took office, including one to his own advisor Roger Stone who was convicted of lying in court regarding an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 US elections. He was initially sentenced to over 3 years in prison, which Trump quashed.
If returning to the US with a pardon, Snowden could still face federal charges for violating the Espionage Act 1917 and for theft of government property.
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