ACLU asks Donald Trump to pardon Edward Snowden? Will Donald Trump pardon Edward Snowden? And Julian Assange?

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 American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has made a tweet and called on the outgoing President of the USA, Donald Trump to pardon Whistleblower Edward Snowden. He is on exile from the USA since 2013 and is now residing in Russia. But critics have slammed the ACLU as being sexist. Will Donald Trump pardon Edward Snowden? And then what about Reality Winner?

Donald and Edward Snowden [Source: Politico]

ACLU and the call to pardon Edward Snowden

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) tweeted recently requesting the outgoing President of the USA, Donald Trump to pardon the whistleblower former USA citizen, Edward Snowden. They wrote on their Twitter:

“Pardon Snowden,” 

“Edward Snowden blew the whistle on illegal government activity kept secret for years,” 

“Our democracy is better off because of him.”

These tweets came after some Congressmen have been calling on Donald Trump to pardon Edward Snowden. Florida rep. Matt Gaetz had tweeted that the President might listen to the majority of them in favor of Edward pardon.

The criticism and backlash

Many critics took objection of this tweet of ACLU. They said that ACLU is sexist and was asking for pardon for Mr Edward and not for Ms Reality Winner. She was the fellow whistleblower and had released some sensitive NSA data. In 2018, she got a sentence of five years and three months in prison.

Some felt that ACLU was asking for Edward pardon and not Reality since media was chasing the case of Edward and not of Reality who is in prison and did not run away. One social media user wrote:

“If you weren't so sexist, you'd work to free Reality Winner instead,” 

Some felt that Reality’s case was more urgent than that of Edward. But in 2017, ACLU had stood for Reality and labeled her persecution as being under unconstitutional laws. This September, Edward had himself gone live on MSNBC and asked Donald to free Reality. In August 2020, Donald had said that he was looking into pardon for Edward.

Will Donald Trump pardon Edward Snowden?

Edward is in Russia since June 2013 and has a permanent residency there. He was at Moscow’s International airport for 39 days after his American passport cancelation and before Russia offered him temporary asylum. Barack Obama had canceled his American citizenship and also canceled a meeting with Putin for offering Edward refuge. He also did not pardon Edward and said:

“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.”

Though Donald had called Edward a traitor, disgrace, coward, there are chances that he may before he exits White House pardon Edward Snowden.

But it will not be for humanitarian reasons but for his own personal gain. And his rival Joe Biden had sided Barack Obama’s decision. This might be an opportunity for Donald to give him a tit for tat. He might do it because he wants to go against the Democrats who would never pardon Edward. He would also by doing so get a chance to revenge Deep State such as FBI, NSA, and CIA. He was no fan of them and had accused them of delaying COVID-19 vaccine to damage his re-election bid. He feels that the FBI had made a fake case against him about Russian collusion with his 2016 election win. The more the Democrats hate Edward, the more it is likely that Donald would pardon him. And Edward had also asked Donald to pardon Julian Assange. Will Julian Assange also get a pardon??

 Also, read India is the unhappiest place in South Asia

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