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President Obama Says He Can't Pardon Snowden (arstechnica.com)
Joe Mullin, writing for Ars Technica:A campaign to pardon NSA leaker Edward Snowden, launched in combination with a fawning Oliver Stone film about him, hasn't made any headway. The request spurred the entire membership of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, 13 Republicans and nine Democrats, to send a letter to President Barack Obama urging against a pardon. "He is a criminal," they stated flatly. Obama weighed in on the matter on Friday. During his European tour, he was interviewed by Der Spiegel -- the largest newspaper in Germany, a country where Snowden is particularly popular. After discussing a wide range of issues, he was asked: Are you going to pardon Edward Snowden? Obama replied: "I can't pardon somebody who hasn't gone before a court and presented themselves, so that's not something that I would comment on at this point." He continued: I think that Mr. Snowden raised some legitimate concerns. How he did it was something that did not follow the procedures and practices of our intelligence community. If everybody took the approach that I make my own decisions about these issues, then it would be very hard to have an organized government or any kind of national security system. At the point at which Mr. Snowden wants to present himself before the legal authorities and make his arguments or have his lawyers make his arguments, then I think those issues come into play. Until that time, what I've tried to suggest -- both to the American people, but also to the world -- is that we do have to balance this issue of privacy and security.
Lest you downmod for political reasons. Obama could pardon anyone for anything - the power is unfettered.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
That doesn't hold water, because "I can't" was followed by an explanation of why he couldn't. and it happened to be total bullshit.
The power of a president to grant a pardon is only limited by not being able to pardon in cases of impeachment.
The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
Seems pretty straight-forward.
1 Snowden is alleged to have committed offences against the United States.
2. He is not being impeached.
3. Obama is president.
4. He can grant a reprieve or pardon according to the above-cited Constitution, Article 2, Section 2, Clause 1.
Congress cannot ignore the pardon. Snowden is free to testify and admit every damn thing, and there's nothing they can do about it, since it would have been pardoned. He probably would, because it would give him a platform and a chance to get all the crap into the congressional record. Congress does NOT want that. They would shit their collective pants.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Legal experts agree that the President can pardon someone even if there has been no charge; they need only specify in broad terms.
For example:
The reasons that Obama won't pardon Snowden are two: First, he doesn't want to. Second, it would beg the question of pardoning Hillary Clinton.