Surviving four years of illegal FBI spying on his 2016 presidential campaign and presidency, 74-year-old President Donald Trump defied Yale psychiatrist Dr. Bandy X. Lee who’s diagnosed Trump as a “malignant narcissist,” warning the world in 2016 about Trump getting access to nuclear codes. Proving Lee and her legion of Trump haters wrong, Trump showed the one trait contradicting unethical psychiatrists: Possessing empathy. Defying all the stereotypes, including his 55-year-old niece Mary L. Trump’s book, “Too Much and Never Enough: How may family created the most dangerous many in the world, Trump empathized with exiled 37-year-old former National Security Agency contactor Edward Snowden who fled from Honolulu May 20, 2013 to Hong Kong after stealing over 1,500 classified files while working for National Security Agency [NSA] contractor Booz Allen Hamiliton..
Escaping to Hong Kong, Snowden eluded the FBI and CIA until he flew to Moscow June 23, 2013. Snowden got help from Hong Kong authorities, ACLU Atty. Ben Wisner and Wikileaks Sarah Harrison who accompanied Snowden to Moscow, eventually arranging his Aeroflot flight after Hong Kong authorities refused to cooperate with the CIA’s bureau chief. Snowden left for Moscow after turning over his secret files to Hong Kong journalists, then spending 39 days in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, until granted asylum Aug. 1 by 67-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin. Snowden was charged with violating the 1917 Espionage Act, disclosing classifed files to foreign journalists, something he did proudly as a brazen 28-year-old whistleblower, claiming the U.S. government spied on its own citizens and those of foreign governments, violating U.S. civil and global human rights.
Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry revoked Snowden’s passport June 22, preceded June 14 with former Atty. Gen. Eric Holder charging Snowden with (a) theft of government property, (b) unauthorized communication of national defense information and (c) willful communication of classified intelligence information to an unauthorized person, all violations of the 1917 Espionage Act. During his eight years in office, former President Barack Obama drew a line, refusing Snowden’s arguments about whistleblowing, asking him for clemency. Holder telegraphed to Snowden that he would get a fair trial in the U.S. but offered no whistleblower status or clemency deals. After suffering the indignity of illegal U.S. spying against his campaign and presidency, Trump empathized with Snowden, after subjected to four years of illegal FBI spying during his campaign and in his first term.
When you consider that corrupt FBI attorney, 38-year-old Kevin Clinesmith, plead guilty Aug. 14 to altering an FBI documents for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act [FISA] court application related to 49-year-old former Trump foreign campaign aid Carter Page, Trump had enough of FISA Court and Espionage Act. Pardoning Snowden would stick it to Obama’s FBI and Justice Department, but, more importantly, double-bind Snowden’s liberal backers, many of whom expect to vote for 77-year-old former Vice President Joe Biden, who backed Obama’s decision to prosecute Snowden. “There are a lot of people that think he is not being treated fairly by U.S. law enforcement,” Trump told the New York Post, hinting that he agreed with Snowden, something that doesn’t fit Democrats’ narrative heading to the Nov. 3 election. Trump said he would look seriously into Snowden’s case.
Trump’s decision to pardon Snowden would be a shrewd political calculation to go after the youth vote that tends to sympathize with Snowden. Snowden was only 28-years-old when to hijacked the government’s secret files and hightailed it out of town. On some level, Trump admires Snowden’s intrepid spiritf, sacrificing his life living in exile for the past seven years. “I’m going to start looking into it,” Trump told reported at his Bedminster Golf club in New Jersey. “It seems to be a split decision,” Trump said. “Many people think he should be somehow treated differently. And other people
think he did very bad things.” Only last year, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Snowden’s personal memoir, “Permanent Record,” giving his side of his whistleblower story. Pardoning Snowden would insult the FBI and DOJ, maybe even offend 70-year-old Atty. Gen. William Barr.
Voters are reminded daily that Trump remains the unconventional president and candidate, not fitting into any category or, for that matter, listening to his handlers. When he commuted 71-year-old Washington gadfly Roger Stone, Trump defied conventional wisdom, doing what he thought was right. Trump communed Stone’s because it was his way to slap 75-year-old Robert Mueller who wasted 22-months and $40 million dollars investigating what Trump calls the “Russian hoax.” Trump heard yesterday from Mueller’s former 62-year-old lead prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, complaining about Clinesmith’s plea bargain. Nothing would please Trump more that the make a statement for posterity about the Obama Justice Department and FBI, who’s illegal counterintelligence investigation of Trump’s 2016 campaign and White House gets closer to full exposure.
