President Donald Trump told reporters on Saturday he is considering a pardon for Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor who leaked a giant trove of U.S. national secrets in 2013. https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-says-he-is-considering-pardon-for-leaker-edward-snowden_3463063.html

“I’m going to start looking at it,” Trump said at a news conference in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Snowden fled to Russia & was given asylum in 2013 after his leaks exposed a vast domestic & international surveillance operation carried out by the NSA. U.S. authorities have since...

...sought to have Snowden return to face criminal espionage charges.

Snowden’s attorney said the United States should not only pardon his client but drop all prosecutions since Snowden has not committed any crimes.

“He was acting not only in the interest of the American citizens, but in the interest of all the humankind,” the attorney, Anatoly Kucherena, said.

The president said on Aug. 15 he thinks Americans on both the political left and the right are divided on Snowden.

“It seems to be a split decision,” Trump said. “Many people think he should be somehow treated differently. And other people think he did very bad things.”

The federal court ruled in 2015 that the NSA’s metadata surveillance program that Snowden exposed was illegal. The program collected information on at least 80 percent of all the phone calls made or received by Americans.

The NSA still operates PRISM, a program which collects communications from internet providers.