When Edward Snowden sought clemency for his crimes in 2016, I was opposed. A pardon, I wrote, “would inflict one more humiliation on the United States, and offer one more victory to those who believe they can defeat us because we are so foolishly adept at defeating ourselves.” Whatever good Snowden achieved from a free-speech standpoint was outweighed, I argued, by the harm. “As harsh as it is to accept, without Snowden — and without the truth he laid bare — America would be much stronger and more secure, and the road ahead would be much less treacherous and uncertain.”
At the tail end of the Obama years, the verdict of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence felt definitive:
Snowden caused tremendous damage to national security,
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