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President Obama Should Pardon Edward Snowden Before Leaving Office (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via The Verge: Ever since Edward Snowden set in motion the most powerful public act of whistleblowing in U.S. history, he has been living in exile in Russia from the United States. An article in this week's New York Magazine looks at how Snowden may have a narrow window of opportunity where President Obama could pardon him before he leaves office. Presumably, once he leaves office, the chances of Snowden being pardoned by Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump are miniscule. Obama has said nothing in the past few years to suggest he's interested in pardoning Snowden. Not only would it contradict his national security policy, but it will severely alienate the intelligence community for many years to come. With that said, anyone who values a free and secure internet believes pardoning Snowden would be the right thing to do. The Verge reports: "[Snowden] faces charges under the Espionage Act, which makes no distinction between delivering classified files to journalists and delivering the same files to a foreign power. For the first 80 years of its life, it was used almost entirely to prosecute spies. The president has prosecuted more whistleblowers under the Espionage Act than all president before him combined. His Justice Department has vastly expanded the scope of the law, turning it from a weapon against the nation's enemies to one that's pointed against its own citizens. The result will be less scrutiny of the nation's most powerful agencies, and fewer forces to keep them in check. With Snowden's push for clemency, the president has a chance to complicate that legacy and begin to undo it. It's the last chance we'll have."
POTUS should do all sorts of things, according to many people. He should come clean about the alien reptile people. He should grab a bite to eat every now and then to keep his energy level up. He should pardon all the whistle blowers that were promised the most transparent administration in history.
Actually, since Trump has already spoken against Snowden, it seems more likely that Obama would pardon Snowden. Trump's nature is very unlikely to walk back on Snowden. However, Obama might not resist the urge to tweak a President elect Trump's nose by pardoning Snowden.
You are right, he does deserve jail time.
Unfortunately, he would probably get far worse if he returned... and we'd never hear anything about it from any official channels... or at least not anytime soon enough for it to matter.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I'm not a Trump supporter by any means. I'm a #NeverTrump but creating straw men does not help your cause. He didn't make it simply by Daddy's money. There are plenty of people who got daddy's money and lost it all. From rags to riches to rags in three generations.
I was in the building trades and he was very well liked by both union men (which I was) and professional men (which I became). He was competent and audacious and built really interesting projects
Do not take this as me being a Donald Trump supporter for his presidential run. Again I'm a #NeverTrump. But don't build strawmen either. It doesn't help.
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
I agree that ES won't be pardoned.. By this administration or the next...
Now granting a pardon for Hillary? I'm pretty sure he won't do that because it's a no win situation for him.
In order for a pardon to be a net gain for anybody here, Hillary will have to be charged. Where I believe she's committed a number of felonies with this E-mail thing, she's NOT getting charged as long as Obama is in the White House, no way no how. It's technically possible she gets charged, but that only puts Obama in a tough spot. He'd have to pardon her and further tarnish his image and make it harder for her to be elected. She won't be charged.
Obama could preemptively pardon Hillary (even though she's not been charged), but that has no upside for him or her either. Where this would put the issue legally behind her, both Hillary and Obama would suffer the same political fall out, making her election harder for the party.
The wild card here is what happens AFTER the election and that depends on who wins... If Trump wins, I can see Obama letting Hillary get charged and then sitting on his hands. Seems to be his style to let her blow in the breeze at that point, but Trump's election is hardly assured. If Hillary wins, then gets charged, things would get interesting indeed because I'm still not sure Obama would pardon her, and if she took office with charges pending you can bet the house would impeach her before the end of January 2017 and she'd be out of office within months. In fact, she'd be impeached even with the pardon....
What amazes me is that we are at this point in this country.... How far have we fallen... Just the current crop of presumptive nominees should cause the thinking person pause...
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
The president could pardon someone for "any federal felonies committed" but not misdemeanors. Then Snowden could be convicted of one or more misdemeanor charges like "improper handling of public records" or whatever misdemeanor charge is appropriate.
However, as TFS said:
The Obama administration has prosecuted more whistleblowers under the Espionage Act than all presidents before him COMBINED.
Obama pardoning Snowden is about as likely as Bill Clinton being a virgin.
What about Hillary Clinton? The Clintons have been in office or running for office most of their adult lives, since 1977. Most of her career, Bill was the public face of the the team, the actual office holder, while Hillary's role was PR, whitewashing negative information, from small issues of character to major scandals. For example, she assembled and led the teams trying to discredit women like Monica Lewinski and Paula Jones, trying to persuade the public that those events never happened and the women were liars. Her career has been all about HIDING the affairs of government officials. A whistle blower like Snowden, someone who puts the truth on public display, is her enemy, a total low-life from her perspective.
The fact that Obama's said Snowden should be in jail should be a clue.
This will get down moded for saying it but Snowden betrayed the country by providing critical foreign intelligence to the nations we were spying on. Had his revelations stopped at only those engaged in legal/illegal spying on US citizens I would consider him a total hero, but because he assisted foreign nations in blocking legitimate spying, and for that he should be jail. He put no filters on the information he provided the press and he did real harm to our international spying efforts. He exposed programs and technologies that provided real foreign intelligence and were no threat to American citizens.
Snowden is a hero and a criminal and he should serve time in prison for what he did. Though his revelations about spying on american's shouldn't be punished his other revelations should be.
Pardon him for his breach of the espionage act, but leave him on the hook for everything else.
I think that would go a long way to appeasing the "pardon him" crowd. Might even get him to show up and front court, who knows.