'Not disappointed': US whistleblower Snowden after he goes unpardoned by Trump
Hours before leaving the White House, Trump pardoned 73 people, including his former aide Steve Bannon and other allies, but left the whistleblower out of the list.
American whistleblower Edward Snowden on Wednesday said that he was not disappointed to go unpardoned by US President Donald Trump, calling him a man “who has never known a love he had not paid for.” Hours before leaving the White House, Trump pardoned 73 people, including his former aide Steve Bannon and other allies, but left the whistleblower out of the list.
Snowden, who had leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency in 2013 revealing numerous surveillance programs, said that Trump’s supporters must not forgive the “simpering creature” who failed to pardon truth-tellers in far more desperate circumstances. Taking to Twitter, the whistleblower said that he “would rather be without a state than without a voice.”
In August 2020, Trump had said that he was considering a pardon for Snowden, marking a reversal from his earlier stance that the whistleblower was “a spy who should be executed”. He had told a news conference at Trump National Golf Club, Bedminster, that he wasn’t “aware of the Snowden situation”, but assured that he is going to “start looking at it”.
“I mean, I’ve seen people that are very conservative and very liberal, and they agree on the same issue; they agree both ways. I’m going to take a look at that very strongly, Edward Snowden,” he had said.
The American whistleblower is currently at an unknown location in Russia since he was granted the right of asylum after his US passport was revoked. Last year, Snowden, author of the book titled ‘Permanent Record’, had said that the president should end the war on whistleblowers at the stroke of a pen. Speaking at 11th Hour show, Snowden had, however, clarified that he hasn’t asked for pardon for himself.