Edward Snowden, accused of violating the Espionage Act for leaking National Security Agency secrets about government surveillance of Americans, says he should be given a presidential pardon for helping strengthen the moral and ethical backbone of the United States.
"If not for these disclosures, if not for these revelations, we would be worse off," Snowden, who is living as a fugitive in Russia, said in an interview with The Guardian.
"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, these were vital things."
Snowden, who exposed the scale of surveillance by U.S. and British intelligence agencies, faces at least 30 years in jail if he returns to the United States and is convicted.
"I think when people look at the calculations of benefit, it is clear that in the wake of 2013 the laws of our nation changed," Snowden said.
"The Congress, the courts and the president all changed their policies as a result of these disclosures. At the same time there has never been any public evidence that any individual came to harm as a result."
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