"He can't set the precedent for his millions of employees that blatent breaches of authority are an option." He can, and he should have, not that I expected it

"He can't set the precedent for his millions of employees that blatent breaches of authority are an option." He can, and he should have, not that I expected it. He doesn't have to (and shouldn't) establish that all breaches of authority are an option. But the most credible signal the President could send that the US government is not authoritarian and evil is to pardon those who, in good conscience and motivated by concerns about whether secret actions are authoritarian and evil, raise those concerns to the public awareness. If we're going to have secret programs carried out while blatantly lying to the American people about what is and is not done, and about what is and is not allowed, then we lose a good deal of democratic control over what is done in our name. Such programs may be necessary, but if they are then ensuring that at least those working on them believe them to be a good idea helps re-establish some check on the likely distance between what we want and what happens behind the scenes.