Trump Pardoning Someone ‘Very, Very Important’ on Tuesday, But Not Snowden

Getty President Donald Trump delivers remarks on the economy at Mankato Regional Airport on August 17, 2020 in Mankato, Minnesota.

President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that he is pardoning someone very important on Tuesday. Despite speculation that it might be Edward Snowden, Trump told reporters that Snowden was not the person he planned to pardon on August 18.

The announcement was made on Air Force One, according to the White House press pool.

Alayna Treene of Axios reported about the announcement on Twitter. She wrote: “POTUS told reporters on AF1 that he will be issuing a pardon tomorrow of someone ‘very, very important.’ He said it will not be Michael Flynn or Edward Snowden, per pooler.”

Kaitlan Collins of CNN reported the same message, writing: “President Trump says he will be issuing a pardon tomorrow for someone “very, very important,” but it would not be Michael Flynn or Edward Snowden, per the pool traveling with him.”

Now everyone on Twitter is wondering who it might be.

Some are tweeting that this is a means to draw attention from the Democratic National Convention.

Some are guessing it might be Marcus Garvey.

Garvey died in 1940, so it would be a posthumous pardon if it were granted. He was convicted of mail fraud in 1923, WLRN reported. He was deported to Jamaica and supporters have asked for his exoneration since, saying the trial was racially motivated.

Others are guessing Julian Assange, but Trump has made no indication of considering this.

Some people on Twitter suggested Ross Ulbricht, who was given a double life sentence for money laundering and computer hacking and conspiracy connected to the Silk Road. His appeal to the Supreme Court was not successful. But Trump has made no mention of Ulbricht either, leaving this possibility unlikely.


Trump Had Previously Hinted that He Might Pardon Snowden

Trump had previously commented on how he was considering pardoning Snowden, but it appears that whoever he is pardoning tomorrow is going to be someone different.

On August 15, Trump said during a press conference that he might pardon Snowden, Fox News reported.  But he added that he’d have to look into it more.

“I’m not that aware of the Snowden situation,” Trump told reporters. “Many people think he should be somehow treated differently and other people think he did very bad things. I’m going to take a look at that very strongly.”

He told the New York Post: “There are a lot of people that think that he is not being treated fairly. I mean, I hear that… When you look at [former FBI Director James] Comey and [former FBI Deputy Director Andrew] McCabe, and [former CIA Director John] Brennan — and, excuse me, the man that sat at this desk, President Obama, got caught spying on my campaign with Biden. Biden and Obama, and they got caught spying on the campaign.”

Snowden had said that the last time a pardon was considered was in 2016.

He wrote on Twitter: “The last time we heard a White House considering a pardon was 2016, when the very same Attorney General who once charged me conceded that, on balance, my work in exposing the NSA’s unconstitutional system of mass surveillance had been ‘a public service.'”

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