“On my first day in office, I’m going to pardon Edward Snowden and I’m going to drop charges — all charges — against Julian Assange,” Kennedy said on Friday.
Assange should be celebrated as a hero, Kennedy said. There ought to be monuments in Washington to both Assange and Snowden, Kennedy said.
Earlier this week, the United Kingdom’s High Court of Justice granted Assange’s application for the right to challenge attempts to extradite him to the United States, where he faces prosecution under the Espionage Act for obtaining and disclosing classified information that revealed war crimes and human rights violations by US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Snowden lives in exile in Russia, after having leaked classified information about US surveillance programs, for which he was likewise charged with violating the Espionage Act.