In July, the White House rejected a petition to pardon Snowden that had garnered more than 160,000 signatures, saying he should be “judged by a jury of his peers.”
Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said Wednesday that although the White House greeted the campaign to pardon Snowden with “not a very positive reaction” initially, “we think it will change with the public’s response” to the petition.
Snowden and his supporters argue that although he stole information, the revelations have benefited the public because they led to improved privacy protection laws.
In a video conference Wednesday, Snowden reiterated that he could not receive a fair trial in the United States under the Espionage Act.
“It does not permit a whistle blower defence,” he said. “The law does not distinguish between those who give free sensitive information to journalists and spies who sell it to foreign powers.”
– Leaks morally ‘necessary’ –
Snowden himself called on Obama for a pardon in comments published by Britain’s Guardian newspaper on Tuesday, arguing that it had been morally “necessary” to shine a light on mass surveillance.
“If not for these disclosures, if not for these revelations, we would be worse off,” he told the paper in a video-link interview from Moscow on Monday.
“Yes, there are laws on the books that say one thing, but that is perhaps why the pardon power exists — for the exceptions, for the things that may seem unlawful in letters on a page but when we look at them morally, when we look at them ethically, when we look at the results, it seems these were necessary things,” he said.
Snowden insisted he had widespread support, saying the “public, by and large, cares more about these issues far more than I anticipated.”
