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Comment by qwerty456127 | Hacker News Reader

I just wonder why. It seemed like pardoning Assange and Snowden could win him a huuuge bonus to popularity among people all over the world. Perhaps that was considered "too much" and could probably imply worse consequences so he hesitated to.

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He was investigated for 2 years and is still accused to this day for Russian collusion. Pardoning either Snowden, who is in Russia right now, and Assange, who is accused of being a co-conspirator in the Russia collusion accusations, would be like throwing gasoline on that fire. I don't see how he could do it without alienating most of his establishment support, which he still needs after leaving office.

IMHO nobody (including and especially members of the establishment) seriously believes Snowden or Assange are actually Russian spies, really. Snowden just had to flee to Russia because that was the only counterpart to the US which is sufficiently powerful and interested to possibly hide him and also just enough civilized&westernized to tolerate.

> IMHO nobody (including and especially members of the establishment) seriously believes Snowden or Assange are actually Russian spies, really.

If there was a Trump pardon, I guarantee every major news outlet would bring up their Russian connections and Twitter would lose its mind. What people "seriously believes" changes rapidly.

> IMHO nobody (including and especially members of the establishment) seriously believes Snowden or Assange are actually Russian spies, really

I think lots of people think Assange has been (“is” is a murkier question) a Russian asset, but not so much a spy (someone who serves as an agent for collecting information) as an active influence agent.

For Snowden, I think that’s probably less common.

No, it's not about the Russia collusion hoax (yes it was a hoax btw).

Simply put, Trump was threatened that if he pardons Assange, senate republicans (the establishment) would vote to convict.

I wish he had the courage to call their bluff, because them convicting Trump would fragment the GOP to an extent that is irreversible, IMO. Most people who aren't Trump supporters don't appreciate the extent to which Trump's base is not overlapping with the establishment GOP base.

Not a hoax.

"there was knowing and complicit behavior between the Trump campaign and Russians that stopped short of direct coordination, which may constitute conspiracy."[1]

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mueller_report#Redacted_report...

Trump doesn't care about the GOP or the country or anything but himself(and he doesn't care about the law)

That's one of the reasons he colluded with a hostile foreign entity(Russia). Cause he doesn't give a shit. Sadly I don't have much hope for senate Republicans to do the right thing regardless of what Trump did, even after his role in the attempted coup

Trump doesn't have courage, he has bluster and self interest, he didn't see what was in it for him to pardon Assange

He's accused because it's pretty clear he colluded with Russia then tried to drop sanctions on them

I think Trump is afraid of pissing off the establishment. The FBI has been criminally investigating Trump literally his entire time as president. The Mueller investigation is over but the SDNY office is still investigating his finances hoping to find something they can nail him on.

It's also been reported that Mitch McConnell threatened to support the impeachment if he pardons Assange. Though this claim has not been substantiated.

I don't think that he could have gained much support by pardoning them: I'd expect the groups of people who might still be pulled (back) on Trump's side and the group of people who would celebrate a Snowden or Assange pardon to be mutually exclusive. And if Trump is good at anything besides golf, it's correctly assessing whom he might sway and with whom all efforts would be wasted.

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