Put Snowden, Assange atop presidential pardon spreadsheet

While 3,000 a day die from covid, Trump spends his last 10 weeks pursuing his soft coup to stay in office. But with his exit certain, he’s also focused on granting pardons and commutations to dozens; so many he’s created a pardon/commutation spreadsheet to keep track. Many feel his kids, their spouses, his cronies, even The Donald top the list.

Most of his previous 45 pardons and commutations have been dreadful, including Sheriff Joe Arpaio and National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. But his commutation of Governor Rod Blagojevich’s unconscionably long prison sentence, and his posthumous pardon of black boxing champ Jack Johnson, wrongly imprisoned in 1920 for dating white women, were long overdue.

Topping the list should be Julian Assange and Edward Snowden. Both are charged with violations of the 1917 Espionage Act, passed to suppress free speech dissent against U.S. entry into WWI. Australian Assange is currently on trial in the UK to be extradited to America where he faces a life sentence for publishing classified documents revealing U.S. war crimes in Iraq. Snowden, safe from extradition in Russia, faces 30 years for releasing classified documents proving the U.S. conducted massive illegal surveillance of U.S. citizens.

The real felons in these shabby episodes of American governance get fabulous government pensions and treated as national heroes. Assange and Snowden’s efforts on behalf of ending senseless war and illegal spying show once again…no good deeds go unpunished.