Politico | Edward Snowden allies see opening amid Donald Trump clemency blitz
- Donald Trump once called Edward Snowden a ‘traitor’ and a ‘spy who should be executed’
- More recently, the US president has expressed a willingness to consider a pardon
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Andrew Desiderio and Anita Kumar on politico.com on December 24, 2020.
The pardons have started. And they’re not going to stop.
Sensing an opening, some of Donald Trump’s closest congressional allies are imploring the president to add one controversial name to his list: Edward Snowden.
Aware that Trump bypasses the formal pardon process and chooses candidates based on advice from the friends and celebrities in his orbit, several Republican lawmakers have been encouraging the president to offer clemency to Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who caused a firestorm in 2013 when he leaked classified information that exposed the vast underbelly of America’s global spying apparatus.
Senator Rand Paul has talked to Trump about a Snowden pardon, as has Matt Gaetz, both lawmakers who have had Trump’s ear. The just-pardoned Roger Stone, a long-time Trump adviser, also made a public appeal for Snowden’s clemency.
Their pitch: Snowden has been unfairly persecuted after revealing the mendacity of people like James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence. It’s an argument that may play well with Trump, who also sees himself as a victim of the American intelligence services and despises Clapper.
