Snowden Pleads for Pardon

On May 20th, 2013 Edward Snowden leaked classified NSA documents to journalists from Hong Kong. From there, Snowden flew to Russia and was granted asylum for three years. Today, he is still in an unknown location in Russia where he has recently pleaded to President Obama to pardon him before the end of the president’s term. If Snowden comes back to the States, he faces up to 30 years in prison.

Snowden believes he should receive the pardon based on the fact that leaking the documents was, in his mind, a morally-correct decision. Speaking from a video link broadcasted out of Moscow, Snowden said, “Yes, there are laws on the books that say one thing, but that is perhaps why the pardon power exists for the expectations, for the things that may seem unlawful in letters on a page but when we look at them morally, when we look at them thematically, when we look at the results, it seems those were necessary things, these were vital things.”

Sources have said that the chance of Obama pardoning Snowden are very slim. However, the campaign for a pardon received a boost by Oliver Stone’s film, “Snowden.” Stone hopes that the film will help to shift the opinion in favor of Snowden, and help him achieve the pardon. Snowden hopes that after the excitement surrounding the movie he will finally be able to fade into the background. Snowden claims “That would be the greatest gift anyone could give me.”