Does he get validation for the thousands of documents he disclosed that were unrelated to the illegal domestic surveillance or other domestic activities? He was kind of already validated in the public eye many years ago for the dragnet surveillance reveal, whether or not the letter of the law considered the NSA in violation.<p>I feel like he would've been much more likely to receive a pardon in the past or next few years if he had only given journalists information about their unconstitutional activities, rather than basically the whole kitchen sink of their operations across the globe.
Two large threads about this already:<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24356741" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24356741</a> (1637 points/466 comments)<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24362047" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24362047</a> (404 points/101 comments)