Congressman Matt Gaetz wants President Donald Trump to pardon National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. Snowden was charged under the Espionage Act in 2013 with disclosing details of highly classified government surveillance programs. Snowden has remained in Russia since 2013 to avoid prosecution after the U.S. suspended his passport. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has since said the secret program Snowden exposed in 2013 that collected data on American’s phone calls was illegal. Gaetz said if it were not for Snowden, we might not know that the government was engaged in an activity that a federal court has deemed illegal. Before Snowden’s revelations to journalists, U.S. officials were publicly denying that any information was being collected on American citizens.