Edward Snowden asks Trump to pardon Julian Assange

[still_one]

The former NSA contractor said in a tweet that a pardon would save Assange's life.

Edward Snowden took to Twitter on Thursday to ask President Donald Trump to pardon WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Snowden, a former NSA contractor who disclosed US and UK dragnet spy programs to the press in 2013, said the pardon was a matter of life and death.

"If you grant only one act of clemency during your time in office, please: free Julian Assange," Snowden tweeted. "You alone can save his life."

Assange has been in a London prison since 2019, when he was arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in the English capital. He sought political asylum from Ecuador in 2012 and stayed inside the country's embassy for seven years.

Assange is charged in the US with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information and several other charges related to his access and publication of US diplomatic cables, military documents and other secret information.

https://www.cnet.com/news/edward-snowden-asks-trump-to-pardon-julian-assange/

[beastie boy]

1. This is totally surreal bordering on Dadaist!

It's like Karl Marx asking Stalin to pardon Lenin. The stuff nightmares are made of.

[Boogiemack]

2. Swamp maggots look out for other swamp maggots.

And yes, I am no fan of either Snowdon or Assange. They really are not heroes as proven by their subsequent behaviors.

[beachbumbob]

3. traitors pardoning traitors, nice

[struggle4progress]

4. Assange, Manning, and Snowden all tried to pin Bush-era crimes on Obama

Manning seems something of a confused patsy in all this; Assange's Senate campaign in Australia made his own far-right connections clear; and Snowden is a rightwing libertarian. Both Assange and Snowden are clearly tied to Russia

Assange made efforts to help Trump in 2016. Trump acknowledged these at first, then later denied any real knowledge of Wikileaks. Notably, after all the loud anti-Obama noise from Assange supporters, it was the Trump administration that actually decided to prosecute Assange: a reasonable guess is that Trump decided Assange was less of a threat to him from prison, just as Bush I decided Noriega was less of a threat to him from prison

I can't see Trump pardoning Assange, who was but briefly useful to Trump, and now gets thrown under the bus, because the backstory would be harmful to Trump

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

5. Didn't Assange provide info to Roger Stone?

Sounds like Trump benefitted.

[Hekate]

6. No

[still_one]

7. +++

[abqtommy]

8. I was holding out on making a final decision about Snowden but with this news I've decided

that he really is scum. Just like Assange.