Gabbard Wants Trump Pardons for Assange, Snowden, Whistleblower Safeguards

He wants whistleblowers Julian Assange and Edward Snowden hauled in and prosecuted for revealing classified documents but US President Donald Trump should pardon them instead, said Hawaiian Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat who ran for her party's nomination.

With the Trump Administration in its last days and the President so far issuing few pardons - but including his former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn – Gabbard reached out to the President in a tweet.

“Since you're giving pardons to people, please consider pardoning those who, at great personal sacrifice, exposed the deception and criminality of those in the deep state,” a sideways slap at Trump's depiction of his perceived enemies.

Gabbard, a combat veteran and former US Army Officer Hawaii, wants charges dropped against Assange, the WikiLeaks founder jailed in London where he's fighting extradition to the United States,

He could face Espionage Act charges for releasing US military documents about the Iraq and Iraq wars and a collection of US State Department cables.

Snowden, now living in Russia where he fled to avoid prosecution, leaked documents he copied from the National Security Agency where he was a subcontractor, which showed US and European widespread surveillance programs. He faces prosecution under the same 1917 law.

In her video, Gabbard said she introduced legislation "to stand up for and protect brave whistleblowers who've come forward to expose illegal actions within our own government or egregious abuses of power and to reform the Espionage Act."

She said she wanted to make sure if a whistleblower - such as Assange and Snowden - is prosecuted under the Espionage Act that they would in court be allowed to express their intentions, which the law now doesn't allow.

Her bipartisan legislation was co-sponsored by Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, a zealous supporter of the President who said Trump should pardon himself as he leaves office.

Supporters of Assange – an Australian not backed by his country's government – and Snowden contend they are being prosecuted for both embarrassing revelations and as a chilling signal to other would-be whistleblowers.

Activists and journalists have begun to rally around Assange, with WikiLeaks findings being reproduced in mass media and newspapers such The Guardian, which are not being prosecuted.

Former US President Barack Obama's administration did not try to prosecute Assange but during the extradition trial, Paul Rogers - a Professor of Peace Studies - said Trump was driven by his antipathy toward his predecessor and that Assange's political views made him a target.

The Espionage Act bars any disclosure of classified information that could harm the country’s defense and has penalties up to 175 years in jail or the possibility of the death penalty for convicted military personnel.

Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who was prosecuted under the act after he released a classified Pentagon study about the Vietnam war in 1971, then reported in The New York Times and The Washington Post, supports the whistleblower reform bill.

The Espionage Act was designed to prosecute spies giving military secrets to their homeland but was used by the Obama Administration as well, and has seen convictions for whistleblowers Reality Winner and Terry Albury. Another accused whistleblower, Daniel Hale, faces trial in the Eastern District of Virginia next month.

Under the Espionage Act, the government has to prove only the defendant had reason to believe the information released was closely held by the US government. Whistleblowers facing charges are not able to offer a public interest defence, saying their actions helped, not hurt, the American people.

Snowden told journalist Glenn Greenwald that once President-elect Joe Biden – who was Obama's Vice-President – takes office that a “war on whistleblowers” will not abate.

“This is not a partisan issue; these people are backers of Obama, and we all know about the things that have happened under the Trump Administration. But when you look at this as a trend, as a dynamic, what you see is the criminalization of journalism,” Snowden also added.