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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."
Fuck no. He's a traitor.
You can have an argument about what he revealed in general was beneficial or not, but he gave and sold a metric shitload of classified info to our enemies.
Because there is no suggestion by any who is acquainted with the facts of the case that Hillary will, or even could be charged with any serious crimes in the so-called email server scandal. The worst she is guilty of is poor judgement. Far more serious cases of mishandling or even outright knowingly revealing classified information, such as in the case of David Petraeus, have resulted in no more than misdemeanor charges. Hillary on the other hand may have mishandled her email set-up, but she did it in a way that was commonplace in previous administrations and was common practice at the time, even if the State Department computer security office was trying to change that. The Clinton email controversy is just another cheap manufactured controversy by conservatives to try to tar her with any accusation they can, no matter how thinly supported by the facts. No different than the Obama birth-certificate controversy, no different than the John Kerry "Swift Boat" controversy.
It's the standard operating procedure for conservative trolls. Therefore bobbied's 'analysis' of whether or not Obama would pardon Clinton is nothing more than cheap trolling.