14 DAY TRIAL // Over the past months, ever since the NSA scandal started, many have called for clemency for Edward Snowden, although no one took any formal steps towards this goal, except for a very popular White House petition.
Now, Ron Paul, a former Texas congressman, has announced a petition looking to secure clemency for Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower.
Paul calls on supporters to sign the petition, hoping to enable Snowden to return home. The whistleblower is currently living in Russia, where he received temporary asylum last summer. Prior to this, he had spent over a month in the transit area of a local airport after the United States canceled his passport, leaving him without a way out of the country.
“Edward Snowden sacrificed his livelihood, citizenship, and freedom by exposing the disturbing scope of the NSA's worldwide spying program. Thanks to one man's courageous actions, Americans know about the truly egregious ways their government is spying on them,” Ron Paul says in a video posted on a public channel.
He goes on, saying that by signing the petition, people are telling the US government that Snowden deserves the right to return home without fearing persecution or imprisonment.
Previously, a White House petition asking for clemency for Edward Snowden was left without response, despite gathering over 100,000 signatures in just a few days back in June 2013, immediately after the first leaks were published by the media.
Ron isn’t the only man in the family to show support for Snowden. His son, senator Rand Paul has just filed a lawsuit against Barack Obama, as well as the chiefs of National Intelligence, NSA and FBI in order to push the White House to shut down the mass surveillance programs unveiled by Edward Snowden’s leaked files.