31 writers have signed an open letter that features a request for President Barack Obama. These authors hope to persuade the 44th president of the United States to issue a pardon for the infamous whistleblower, Edward Snowden.
Some of the participants include Newbery Medal winner Neil Gaiman, Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon, and National Book Award winner Joyce Carol Oates. Here’s an excerpt from the letter:
“Having sworn an oath to support and defend the U.S. Constitution, Snowden proceeded to do just that, by releasing the information he’d uncovered to reputable institutions of our free press, in accordance with Jefferson’s principle that ‘wherever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.’ We the people are now well informed, and yet the man who has risked his freedom in the interests of our better self-governance languishes in Russian exile, faced with the prospect of returning home to a trial deprived of a public interest defense, and so, in all likelihood, a cell. This, in our opinion, is exactly the type of circumstance for which the presidency has been invested with the pardon privilege.”