Barr says he's "vehemently opposed" to pardoning Edward Snowden
21 August 2020
Attorney General William Barr told the AP on Friday that he is "vehemently opposed" to pardoning Edward Snowden.
Why it matters: Barr's comments come just days after President Trump said he would "look at" pardoning Snowden, who was charged under the Espionage Act in 2013 for leaking highly classified information on government surveillance programs.
- It remains unclear how serious Trump was about considering a pardon for the former NSA contractor. Ultimately, the power to issue a pardon or commutation for Snowden would lie with Trump.
- Prior to his election, Trump called Snowden a "traitor" and a "spy who should be executed."
What he's saying: Barr called Snowden, who is living in exile in Russia, a "traitor" and said "the information he provided our adversaries greatly hurt the safety of the American people."
- "He was peddling it around like a commercial merchant. We can’t tolerate that."
The big picture: Several top Republicans have also warned Trump against pardoning Snowden.
The other side: Snowden maintains that in working for the NSA and CIA, he concluded that the U.S. intelligence community had "hacked the Constitution."
- He told "Axios on HBO" last year that "it was a difficult thing to come forward."
- He added that he gave up a well-paying government job "spying on you" to never return home to see his family.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.