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Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. mentioned he stays dedicated to pardoning NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden on his first day in workplace if he’s elected to the White House.
Kennedy Jr. launched a petition Monday calling on President Biden to pardon Snowden, who in 2013 famously visited Hong Kong and uncovered categorized NSA paperwork that exposed the U.S. authorities was spying on its residents. He was then charged with espionage and theft of authorities property.
“Snowden performed a critical public service by revealing to Americans for the first time that our government had been spying on us, millions of law-abiding American citizens, in violation of numerous laws and of our fundamental right to privacy,” Kennedy Jr. mentioned in a video hooked up to the petition.
Now a Russian citizen after looking for asylum, Snowden was stranded in Russia following the discharge of the paperwork after the U.S. authorities revoked his passport as he was making an attempt to make the journey to his supposed closing vacation spot of Latin America, the place he had deliberate to keep to keep away from U.S. prosecution for taking 1000’s of categorized paperwork from the NSA and leaking them to the press. Snowden has not left Russia since.
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Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. mentioned he stays dedicated to pardoning NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. (Getty Images)
The info included the mass assortment of Americans’ metadata, permitting the federal government to see when and to whom a telephone name or message was despatched.
The video additionally featured a compilation of feedback made by former Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, all of whom criticized Snowden as a traitor.
“Prior to Edward Snowden, nobody knew that the intelligence agencies were illegally mining all of our data and spying on American citizens,” Kennedy Jr. mentioned. “So it’s not surprising that those same intelligence agencies are now trying to portray Snowden as a criminal and that captive politicians are supporting that narrative.”
“Edward Snowden is an American hero,” Kennedy Jr. continued. “Instead of jailing Snowden, I’m going to build a statue to him and maybe to [WikiLeaks founder] Julian Assange somewhere near the Washington Press Club or perhaps outside the CIA headquarters in Langley as a civics lesson to the Republic.”
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Kennedy Jr. launched a petition calling on President Biden to pardon Snowden. (John Lamparski/Getty Images)
The presidential hopeful has beforehand mentioned he would pardon Snowden and Assange, an Australian writer held in a most safety London jail and combating extradition to the U.S. on espionage costs for publishing categorized navy paperwork in 2010.
“It’s time that we return our government to the democratic and humanitarian ideals that we’ve always represented as a nation,” Kennedy Jr. mentioned. “Let’s go back to championing free speech and celebrating truth-tellers and the whistleblowers who put their careers and their own freedom on the line to protect ours.”
Kennedy Jr. has lengthy been a critic of the U.S. intelligence companies.
After initially difficult Biden for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, Kennedy Jr. launched a White House bid as an unbiased in October, establishing a match-up towards Biden and Trump within the 2024 basic election.
Edward Snowden speaks by way of video hyperlink throughout a convention at University of Buenos Aires Law School, Argentina, Nov. 14, 2016. (Reuters)
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Trump has beforehand mentioned he believes Snowden is a “total traitor” and even urged as soon as that the whistleblower “should be executed.” Still, the previous president later admitted he thought of pardoning Snowden or Assange, who was indicted by Trump’s Justice Department, within the closing days of his administration, though he didn’t specify which one.
“The America I love doesn’t punish whistleblowers,” Kenndy Jr. wrote in his petition. “Truth-tellers who champion free speech and try to return America to its democratic and humanitarian ideals should be revered, not prosecuted.”
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