Clemency Frenzy: Will Obama Pardon Snowden, Manning, Bergdahl?

Clemency Frenzy: Will Obama Pardon Snowden, Manning, Bergdahl?

While his approval numbers with the electorate are upwards of fifty percent—due allegedly to his personal likeability—Barack Obama’s approval numbers with our military and veterans are less rosy. With record numbers of commutations, including for violent felons, coming fast and furiously from the Oval Office, one or two, and perhaps as many as three or more, controversial pardons could further cement his legacy as a president who was anything but a strong, effective Commander in Chief. So who could Obama pardon just before he vacates our White House? Well, along with others just as tendentious, only three of the most controversial figures imaginable:

Edward Snowden (Photo Credit: InfiniteUnknown.net)

1. Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden is the current subject of a big-budget Hollywood film reportedly glorifying his actions. Loathed by millions as a traitor, and adored by just as many more as a patriotic whistleblower, Mr. Snowden is infamous for perhaps the largest intelligence leak in U.S. history. While working as an intelligence contractor, Snowden snatched 1.5 million classified NSA documents, and then leaked thousands of them, leading to the revelation of, among a litany of other subjects, what some deemed warrantless spying on American citizens. He was subsequently charged by the Department of Justice with violating the Espionage Act. (Sounds similar to one pant-suited presidential candidate, eh? The very same candidate that said this during a 2015 primary debate). You can read exactly why he’s a felon, and not a whistleblower, here.

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