Trump Says He Will ‘Take A Look’ At Pardoning Edward Snowden

TOPLINE

President Donald Trump said Saturday he will take a strong look at pardoning NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, representing a sharp turnaround from the president who once called him a “traitor.”

KEY FACTS

Crucial quote

 “There are a lot of people that think that he is not being treated fairly. I mean, I hear that,” Trump said in an interview with the New York Post on Thursday.

Key background

Snowden is living in Russia, which granted him asylum, after he leaked documents in 2013 detailing U.S. government surveillance programs run by the NSA. The subsequent reporting based on Snowden’s leaks earned the Washington Post and the Guardian the Pulitzer Prize. Snowden is now an advocate for privacy and maintains that the U.S. government has failed to show evidence that the information he leaked has caused harm.