President Trump said that he is “very strongly” looking at pardoning NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The move was immediately condemned by senior Democrats, including Barack Obama’s former national security adviser Susan Rice.
In 2013, Snowden revealed to the American public that the National Security Agency (NSA) was conducting mass surveillance on American citizens on an unimaginable scale. This led to a public debate about the scale of the surveillance state, which had at that point far exceeded the boundaries of the U.S. Constitution.
Even though Snowden, who had joined the American intelligence community out of love for his country, acted to inform the American public about power abuses committed against the American people, the Obama administration treated him as a traitor and went to great lengths to arrest him.
Since it was apparent that he could not expect a fair trial in the United States, Snowden fled to Hong Kong, from where he sought asylum in numerous countries, including Ecuador and Germany. However, due to interventions by the Obama administration, each country eventually refused his request, except Russia, where he has been living since.
While Snowden is regarded by most people around the world and in the U.S. as a hero who made great personal sacrifices to reveal grave wrongdoing, many senior government officials in America wanted him behind bars.
President Trump’s consideration of a pardon for Edward Snowden is the first glimpse of hope for the whistleblower to possibly be able to safely return to America after all.
https://nypost.com/2020/08/16/trump-very-strongly-mulling-pardon-for-edward-snowden/