Edward Snowden has been living in Russia, where he’s been seeking asylum since he leaked classified information from the NSA as a CIA employee, when Donald Trump announced he would consider pardoning him for his crimes.
“There are a lot of people that think that he is not being treated fairly. I mean, I hear that,” said Trump in an interview with the New York Post. That has apparently sparked Trump's interest in considering the pardon.
Trump also tweeted in 2013 that Snowden is a “spy who should be executed-but if it and he could reveal Obama’s records, I might become a major fan.”