3 ms·
> Why WOULD Trump pardon assange or snowden? Because he has a grudge against the US intelligence community, so would enjoy using his power to piss them off: h
by ardy42 6y ago
> Why WOULD Trump pardon assange or snowden?
Because he has a grudge against the US intelligence community, so would enjoy using his power to piss them off:
https://www.lawfareblog.com/why-flynn-pardon-matters https://www.lawfareblog.com/why-flynn-pardon-matters:
> The “own the intelligence community” pardons—pardons designed to offend and punish the intelligence agencies for their professionalism over the past several years and the inconveniences that professionalism has caused to Trump. A number of right-wing and civil liberties figures have suggested pardons for Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, though Axios suggests that Snowden will not get a pardon today. Such actions may have a certain appeal for a president—who, like both Assange and Snowden—has a tolerant attitude toward Russian intelligence activity that benefits him and who does not care overmuch about revealing American intelligence activity to adversary actors. There has also been talk of late about clemency for Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the “Silk Road” dark web market—who is serving a life sentence in connection with a murder-for-hire scheme. This would arguably be more of a “own law enforcement” clemency, but the concept is the same.