Obama will not pardon NSA leaker Edward Snowden

On his final trip to Europe as the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama indeed had plenty to talk about in his interview with Germany’s largest newspaper, Der Spiegel. Everything else aside, Obama did speak plenty about NSA leaker Edward Snowden, who is quite popular in the country. But upon being quizzed as to whether he could pardon Snowden, he was quick to comment that he simply cannot, for a variety of reasons. The paper reported Obama responding with the following statement, “I can’t pardon somebody who hasn’t gone before a court and presented themselves, so that’s not something that I would comment on at this point.” He also added that while Snowden did what he did, he did not do it following the procedures and the practices of the intelligence community. “If everybody took the approach that I make my own decisions about these issues, then it would be very hard to have an organized government or any kind of national security system,” he commented. Ars Technica reported, Noa Yachot, of the ‘Pardon Snowden’ campaign, stating that the President could pardon anyone. In the past, Obama had pardoned three Iranian-American men who had been indicted, but had not stood trial.