Commuting Manning's sentence without pardoning Snowden feels like politics to me.
Manning's actions embarrassed the Bush administration so Obama will commute.
Snowden's actions embarrassed the Obama administration so Obama won't pardon.
Manning's actions embarrassed the Bush administration so Obama will commute.
Snowden's actions embarrassed the Obama administration so Obama won't pardon.
This was the case with Ford's pardoning of Nixon, as well as Carter's pardoning of all those who avoided the draft during the Vietnam war.
"There are substantial differences between legislative immunity and a pardon; the latter carries an imputation of guilt and acceptance of a confession of it,[..]"
You can only be pardoned if you have committed a crime. You have to either confess or admit your crime, or be tried, or at least be charged with a crime.
Nixon confessed and admitted that he was guilty. We wasn't tried, maybe not even charged, but he admitted wrongdoing.
As far as I know, Snowden has not admitted that he's guilty of a crime, he hasn't been tried, and he hasn't been charged. So from a legal point of view, he hasn't committed any crime and cannot be pardoned.
[Citation Needed]
I have never seen or even heard of any such confession from Nixon.
It's also unclear if a pending impeachment might be considered a "conviction" if it's just a likely outcome and not an actual impeachment.
Snowden leaked information on valid espionage programs and possibly gave Russia the keys to the castle when he fled the country. I used to think Snowden deserved a pardon, and had it only been about the warrantless wiretapping I would still feel that way, but he leaked a number of things that damaged US relations in ways that have been highly beneficial to Russia.
I think Snowden is both a patriot and a traitor for what he did.
Might as well claim that he possibly coordinated the 9/11 attacks. It's also possible that he's secretly really old and shot Kennedy.
There hasn't been a shred of evidence presented supporting these claims, and if you're going to make the claim you should back it up somehow.
Snowden had a cache of encrypted intelligence data. Intelligence agencies are fully capable of cracking encryption when properly motivated (in some cases they've backdoored them preemptively).
Ewen MacAskill, living in Europe and possessing the cache, would make a prime target for Russian intelligence. There is no proof that the Russians have his cache, but it's asinine to think that they don't given their overall espionage efforts.
So knowing those two things, you can't credibly claim he handed Russia anything. Whatever Russia has, they obtained from the newspapers just like the rest of us.
Pre-emptively pardoning Snowden before he spends a day in prison sends the signal that the government isn't going to punish people for leaking, so go right ahead.
Commuting Manning's sentence after seven years still leaves a pretty harsh warning for future leakers (is leaking that information worth seven years of your life?) while showing a degree of mercy to the individual (I mean, not the degree of mercy that commuting after 2 or 3 or 6 years would be...).
Regardless of what you think Obama's secret inner beliefs and motivations are, I think it is reasonable to assume that as Commander in Chief and President of the United States he wants the people he entrusts with secrets to keep keeping them.
Not that there is no precedent of course (Nixon).
There is no extradition request to the U.S., so when fighting an extradition to U.S., Snowden is beating a straw man.
Commutation is reduction of sentence, it can only happen after conviction.
> Like 97% of the cases that go to prosecution in this country, let him plea to a lesser crime
Is there any indication that Snowden has any interest in pleading guilty to anything?
It's worth repeating that while Obama commuted her sentence, he didn't pardon her. What he did was say "she's been punished enough", and it's entirely consistent to say that Manning has been punished enough but Snowden hasn't.