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September 20, 2019 08:05 pm

Edward Snowden Wants To Come Home: 'I'm Not Asking For a Pass. What I'm Asking For is a Fair Trial'

Edward Snowden, who has been living in exile in Russia after leaking American intelligence secrets in 2013 and was sued by the U.S. government over his new book this week, says that he would like to return to the United States if he is guaranteed a fair trial. He said: I would like to return to the United States. That is the ultimate goal. But if I'm gonna spend the rest of my life in prison, the one bottom line demand that we have to agree to is that at least I get a fair trial. And that is the one thing the government has refused to guarantee because they won't provide access to what's called a public interest defense. Again, I'm not asking for a parade. I'm not asking for a pardon. I'm not asking for a pass. What I'm asking for is a fair trial. And this is the bottom line that any American should require. We don't want people thrown in prison without the jury being able to decide that what they did was right or wrong. The government wants to have a different kind of trial. They want to use special procedures they want to be able to close the courtroom, they want the public not to be able to go, know what's going on. And, essentially, the most important fact to the government and this is the thing we have a point of contention on, is that they do not want the jury to be able to consider the motivations. Why I did what I did. Was it better for the United States? Did it benefit us or did it cause harm? They don't want the jury to consider that at all. They want the jury strictly to consider whether these actions were lawful or unlawful, not whether they were right or wrong. And I'm sorry, but that defeats the purpose of a jury trial. In an interview with The Daily Show (video), Snowden pointed out that it seems unlikely that the U.S. government is going to change its stand. He said: Just two days before my book came out, there is a whistleblower by the name of Daniel Hale. He is in prison right now. He was arrested for giving documents to journalists about the U.S. drone program. Extrajudicial killings. The United States government filed, in the same court that they are going to charge me -- Eastern District of Virginia -- a complaint before the judge that said the we demand that the court prohibits the jury from hearing and we prohibit the defendant from saying why he did what did because it's irrelevant. The jury shouldn't be distracted with reasons.

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