Why Barack Obama doesn't want to 'poison the well' and pardon Edward Snowden

With Barack Obama's presidential term winding down, there's arenewed push to convince the president that he shouldpardon Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who leaked classified details about the U.S. government's surveillance programs.

This campaign comes, coincidentally, with the release of anew Oliver Stone film alargely glowing portrayal ofthe fugitive and a damningU.S. House Intelligence Committee report about his activities.

Three major human rights agencies Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch andthe American Civil Liberties Association recentlyjoined together to launch the pardonsnowden.org campaign, calling onObamato pardonSnowden, who is currently living inMoscow,"and let him come home with dignity."

'Should be hailed as a hero'

"Snowden should be hailed as a hero. Instead, he is exiled in Moscow, and faces decades in prison under World War One-era charges that treat him like a spy," a message on the website states. "Ed stood up for us, and it's time for us to stand up for him."

The campaign'ssupporters include actors DanielRadcliffe and John Cusack, professor Noam Chomsky,Apple co-founder SteveWozniak, musician Peter Gabriel and billionaireGeorgeSoros.

"I think we owe Mr. Snowden a huge debt of gratitude, because if it wasn't for him, we would never become aware of the massive scale of surveillancetaking placeby government intelligence agencies," said former Ontario privacy commissioner Ann Cavoukian, who also signed hername to thepardonsnowden.org campaign.

• Edward Snowden is 'not a whistleblower,' U.S. government report says
• Snowden escaped arrest with help from a Canadian and refugees in Hong Kong

Yet, despite this renewed interest and allthe high-profile support, it seems highly unlikely that Obama will grant any kind of clemency toSnowden.

"Despite the current media focus onSnowden's case, the president hasn't given any indication that he's seriously considering it," said Jeffrey Crouch, an American politicsprofessor at American University and author ofThe President and the Pardon Power: A Bibliographic Essay. "Obamahas scrupulously avoided pardoning high-profile offenders. ASnowdenpardon may indeed happen one day, but I doubt that this president is eager to be the person to grant it."

A polarizing figure,Snowdenhas been hailedas a courageouswhistleblowerby hissupporters. But his detractors havebranded him acriminalandtraitor whoseleaks, they believe,compromised U.S. security.

The White House has given no indication it's ready to offer Snowden a pardon, and hasrepeatedly said thatSnowden'sconduct put American lives at risk, and that heneeds to return to the U.S. to face the charges against him.

According to the House Intelligence Committee three-page summary, Snowden, in June 2013, absconded with 1.5 million documents,perpetrating"the largest and most damaging public release ofclassified information in U.S. intelligence history."

Thousands of those documents, whichwere subsequently leaked to journalists, revealed massive domestic surveillance programs, including thecollection and storage of U.S. landline calling records times, dates and numbers but not content of the calls.

Critics of Snowden, including the committee, arguethat most of the documents he took had nothing to do with domestic surveillance but instead related tomilitary, defence and intelligenceprogramsinformation thatcouldbe used by U.S. enemies.

Faces 30 years in prison

Snowdenhas been charged with theft ofgovernmentproperty, unauthorized communication of national defence information and wilfulcommunicationofclassifiedcommunicationsintelligenceinformationto an unauthorized person. If found guilty,Snowdencould face 30 years in prison.

P.S. Ruckman, apolitical science professor and editor of the Pardon Power blog, said an important clue into whether Obamawouldpardon Snowden is the president's general record on clemency.

"That's the telling factor here," Ruckman said. "And I tell you what if you're asking for a pardon from this guy, he's pardoned fewer people than any president since John Adams."

Obamahas so far pardoned 70 people. Compare that to otherrelativelyrecent two-term presidents: George W. Bush (189)and Bill Clinton (396).

In a news conference at the Pentagon last month,Obama said that by the end of his term his pardon record would be "roughly in line with what other presidents have done."

During his presidency,Obama has instead focused on commuting sentences,mostlyfornon-violentdrug offenders. (The White House, on its website, indeed boasts that Obama has commuted more sentences than the previous 10presidents combined.).

"No one's expecting some waterfall of pardons, much less controversial pardons," said Ruckman."I mean, no way,I just don't see that happening."

'Would poison the well'

Most of the sentences Obama commutes are below the radar, but the potential for controversy is still there, Ruckman said.

Obamawants to continue with his commutations but "he doesn't want to screw it upby throwing in a Snowdenpardon. It would poison the well," Ruckman said.

A president has the power to pardon anyone accused of federal criminal acts (with the exception of someone who has been impeached) for any reason, or no reason at all.The pardoncan also be applied before a case, during a case or afterconviction.

Seeking a pardon isa complicated and bureaucratic process. An individual would apply to the Office of the Pardon Attorney, who then contacts thejudge andprosecuting attorney related to the case. The application then goes to the FBI for a background check, back to the pardon attorney, who then makes a recommendation to the deputy attorney general. Then a recommendation is made to the White House counsel before it ends up on the president's desk.

But for a high-profile case like Snowden's, the pardon attorney may not even be consulted, according to one formerU.S. pardon attorney.

"That kind of a case, a foreign policy case ... traditionally those are handled elsewhere in the Department of Justice," Margaret Love said.

Ruckman said Snowden doesn't seem to be offering anything too substantial to justify a pardon, like information he may have obtained while in Russia. Instead, hiscase rests on his beliefthat his intentions were noble.

"I think if you're the president and theDepartment of Justice, if anything, you're going to say 'What do you have to give us? If you have something to give us then we can talk turkey.'"

But Cavoukiansaid she'sholdingout hope that Obama, possibly on the last day of his presidency, will issue Snowden a pardon.

"I'm just praying for this outcome but the odds are against me."