SNOWDEN SEEKS PARDON WHILE OBAMA IN OFFICE

Edward Snowden, the former intelligence contractor who leaked classified documents that revealed the scale of U.S. surveillance, has made an appeal to Barack Obama to grant him a presi- dential pardon before leaving office.

Snowden is living in exile in Moscow, and would face up to 30 years in prison if he returned to the U.S. He said the leaks were “vital” and that even if he was legally guilty he had done nothing morally wrong.

“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,” he said.