After nearly a decade of hiding out in Russia, former federal government contractor Edward Snowden is now a Russian citizen.
According to Reuters, Russian President Vladimir Putin granted Snowden citizenship in his country as one of 72 foreigners so recognized on Monday.
“After years of separation from our parents, my wife and I have no desire to be separated from our SONS,” Snowden tweeted in response to the news.
“After two years of waiting and nearly ten years of exile, a little stability will make a difference for my family. I pray for privacy for them – and for us all.”
But U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz believes Snowden needs to hear from another president — Joe Biden.
Snowden has been on the lam from U.S. authorities since 2013, when journalist Glenn Greenwald began publishing a trove of thousands of secret government documents leaked to him by Snowden.
Among the revelations unveiled by Snowden was the fact that the National Security Agency was spying on American citizens.
The federal government compiled, through a process of warrantless spying nicknamed “Hoovering,” a reference to the late FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, millions of email and instant messaging lists from Americans, partly by paying Google and Yahoo for them.
Reuters noted that Snowden retains his U.S. citizenship.
Gaetz, a Fort Walton Beach Republican, believes President Joe Biden must offer something similar.
“Joe Biden should PARDON @Snowden,” Gaetz tweeted Monday.
It’s something he’s advocated before.
In September 2020, Gaetz encouraged then-President Donald Trump to pardon Snowden after the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, the most liberal appellate court in the country, declared that the NSA program Snowden leaked about was illegal and abused the agency’s power.
On his podcast at the time, Gaetz said, “As of today, the case has never been stronger that Edward Snowden deserves a pardon from President Trump. I would support a pardon for Edward Snowden. If it were not for Snowden, we might not know today that our own government was engaged in an activity that now a federal appellate court has deemed illegal.”
“Maybe we can make the pardon conditional on Snowden’s willingness to go back to work for our government and help us get the bad guys without violating the rights of American citizens,” Gaetz added. “America First means the rights of American citizens first, and those rights would be vindicated with a pardon of Edward Snowden.”
GOP Sen. Rand Paul was among those who agreed with Gaetz, and rejected the claim by Snowden’s critics, such as liberal-leaning Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, that the former CIA employee was a traitor.
“Matt is right,” Paul tweeted at the time. “This is important. @Snowden exposed illegal and unconstitutional actions by the Deep State, including [former National Intelligence Director James] Clapper and others who went after @realDonaldTrump and lied about it.”
While Snowden has been in exile and hunted by American authorities, the left-wing media has celebrated anti-Trumper Clapper, who lied to Congress under oath about spying on Americans when he was in the Obama-Biden administration.