NSA whistleblower starts process to gain Obama’s pardon
Edward Snowden, a former contractor with the notorious US National Security Agency, is seeking pardon from President Barack Obama over leaking classified information that embarrassed the state both at home and abroad.
The whistleblower, who has sought asylum in Russia, has a legal team working on the case to make Obama grant pardon before he leaves the White House at the end of this year, his principal legal adviser, Ben Wizner, told New York magazine in a cover story late on Sunday.
“We’re going to make a very strong case between now and the end of this administration that this is one of those rare cases for which the pardon power exists,” Wizner said. “It’s not for when somebody didn’t break the law. It’s for when they did and there are extraordinary reasons for not enforcing the law against the person.”
Snowden began leaking classified intelligence documents in June 2013, revealing the extent of the NSA’s spying activities, including the massive collections of phone records of Americans and foreign nationals as well as political leaders around the world.
He has already said that he would come back to the United States if the government is willing to offer him a fair trial.
However, since then there have been calls of praise from inside the US on the necessity of the leak, highlighting the depth of the US government’s spying.
“They want to throw somebody in prison for the rest of his life for what even people around the White House now are recognizing our country needed to talk about,” Wizner noted.
According to former US Attorney General Eric Holder, Snowden “actually performed a public service by raising the debate that we engaged in and by the changes that we made.”
Snowden’s legal team are taking their best shot at their best hope, Obama, yet preparing for other scenarios since a pardon is quite unlikely.
“There is an element of absurdity to it,” Wizner said. “More and more, we see the criticisms leveled toward this effort are really more about indignation than they are about concern for real harm.”
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