United States President Donald Trump on Saturday said he will “take a look” at pardoning whistleblower Edward Snowden, who blew the lid on the National Security Agency in 2013 that it was keeping surveillance on its citizens.
The former intelligence contractor has been living in Russia since his exile from the US. Snowden was praised as a whistleblower and privacy advocate after he leaked data showing that NSA agents were spying on US citizens.
Following the revelations, however, the US accused Snowden of endangering national security. Previous attempts to have him pardoned by Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama were unsuccessful.
Snowden has expressed his wish to return to the US, but on the condition that he receives a fair trial.
On Saturday, at a press conference at his Bedminster golf club, when asked about pardoning Snowden, the president said that he was “not that aware” of the situation, but he would look into it.
“Many people think that he should be somehow treated differently and other people think he did very bad things. I’ going to take a look at that very strongly,” Trump said.
However, this is a turnaround from his stance during the 2016 presidential campaign when Trump said Snowden was “a total traitor” and that he will be dealt with “harshly”.
