Meeting today to decide more pardons and commutations before he leaves office Jan. 20 at 12 Noon, 74-year-old President Donald Trump continued the rampant speculation of who might be on the list. While not expected to pardon himself or any of the Jan. 6 rioters, Trump has strongly considered controversial pardons for WikiLeaks 49-year-old founder Julian Assange and 34-year-old National Security Agency contractor self-proclaimed whistle blower Eric Snowden. When it comes to pardons for Assange and Snowden, Trump has some unfinished business from his four years of torture by the Department of Justice and FBI for its counterintelligence investigation that consumed his presidency. Trump never got any satisfaction from former Atty. Gen. Bill Barr who promised justice but delivered nothing. Members of former President Barack Obama’s administration got a free pass.
Getting no justice for subjected to an illegal FBI counterintelligence investigation codenamed Operation Crossfire Hurricane, Trump watched his campaign and himself probed by the FBI for four years, approved by 59-year-old former President Barack Obama and his 78-year-old Vice president now President-elect Joe Biden. Both commissioned former FBI 60-year-old former FBI Director James Comey to use the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act [FISA] Court to wiretap former Trump campaign officials. Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, 73, gave the late Sen. John McCain (R-Az.) her bogus “Steele Dosser” to implicate Trump in a spurious conspiracy to win the 2016 presidential election with the Kremlin. Hillary used her fake “Steele Dossier” to discredit Trump during the campaign. Yet Hillary’s dossier was used by the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency [NSA].
Entwined in all the illegal investigations of Trump and his campaign were Assange, who famously published hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and former Hillary Campaign Chairman John Podesta. Hacked emails, attributed to Russia’s FSB [formerly KGB] security agency, reportedly damaged Hillary’s chances in 2016. Hillary frequently blamed Russian hacks and former FBI Director James Comey for handing the presidency to Trump. But Trump’s unfinished business with the FBI’s illegal counterintelligence investigation resulted in the Dec. 23, 2020 pardon by Trump of Roger Stone. Stone was investigated by 76-year-old former Special Counsel Robert Mueller, convicted of witness tampering and lying to federal agents. Stone played an inconsequential role in anything that happened in what Trump calls the “Russian Hoax” or “witch hunt.”
Pardoning Stone was Trump’s way of getting some justice over a four-year nightmare, putting a dark cloud over his presidency. Once Trump fired Comey May.9, 2017 for leaking to the New York Times and Washington Post, Democrats and the media went wild demanding a Special Counsel to investigate Trump. Democrats and the media worked hand-in-glove to discredit Trump for his four years in office. All major networks ran the Democrat narrative that Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election. Even when Mueller cleared Trump March 19, 2019, Democrats and the media continued to hammer the Russian hoax. To stick it to the media, Department of Justice, FBI, CIA and NSA, Trump could pardon NSA whistleblower Eric Snowden. Snowden’s been exiled to Russia since fleeing the U.S. to Hong Kong May 20, 2013. While considered a traitor by some, Snowden’s a hero to others.
Pardoning Snowden and Assange would send the loudest possible message to federal law enforcement and intel agencies that investigated Trump at Obama’s request in 2016. Recently declassified documents prove that the Obama’s White House was actively involved in investigating Trump in 2016 to help Hillary win. Atty. Gen. Barr and his assistant John Durham (R-Conn.) failed to deliver indictments to former Obama administration officials, including President-elect Joe Biden. Biden was present at a Jan. 5, 2017 Oval Office meeting with Obama’s national security team to plan setting up 62-year-old Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. Biden suggested they invoke the 1799 Logan Act to justify framing Flynn, eventually sending FBI agents to the White House Jan. 24, 2017 to question Flynn about his conversations with 79-year-old former Russian Amb Sergey Kislyak, all proved inconsequential.
Pardoning Assange and Snowden would be Trump’s most important pardons, making sham out of Mueller’s Special Counsel investigation, wasting $40 million and two years investigating Trump. Assange gave the world a free X-Ray into undeniable corruption at the DNC in 2016, including Hillary getting debate questions in advance from interim DNC Chairwoman Donna Brazile. With Democrats now impeaching Trump for the second time for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Trump pardon’s of Assange and Snowden would send a loud message about egregious corruption at the highest levels of the Obama White House, FBI, CIA and NSA. Pardon’s for a variety of white collar criminals do nothing for Trump’s legacy leaving the White House. Pardoning Assange and Snowden would record for posterity four years of illegal investigations against Trump and his 2016 campaign.
