Rep. Ilhan Omar wrote President Biden on Thursday to request that he pardon Daniel Hale, an Air Force veteran serving a 45-month prison sentence for leaking secrets about the government’s drone program.
“I take extremely seriously the prohibition on leaking classified information, but I believe there are several aspects of Mr. Hale’s case that merit a full pardon,” wrote Ms. Omar, Minnesota Democrat.
Hale, a former drone operator in his mid-30s, pleaded guilty in March to one count of violating the U.S. Espionage Act for having illegally retained and shared classified national defense information.
In her letter, Ms. Omar, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Hale’s disclosures revealed details about U.S. drone operations abroad but did not place any individual person in danger.
“The information, while politically embarrassing to some, has shone a vital light on the legal and moral problems of the drone program and informed the public debate on an issue that has for too many years remained in the shadows,” Ms. Omar wrote Mr. Biden.
“The legal question of Mr. Hale’s guilt is settled, but the moral question remains open,” she added. “I strongly believe that a full pardon, or at least a commutation of his sentence, is warranted.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a message requesting comment.
Hale served in the Air Force during the Obama administration from 2009 to 2013 prior to working for a U.S. defense contractor that allowed him to access the classified material he ultimately leaked.
“I contacted an investigative reporter, with whom I had had an established prior relationship, and told him that I had something the American people needed to know,” Hale said in a recent letter from jail.
Public court records do not identify anyone on the receiving end of the leaks, but Hale is understood to have disclosed the documents to a journalist and editor for The Intercept, an online publication.
“These documents revealed the truth about the U.S. government’s secretive, murderous drone war, including that the killing of civilians was far more widespread than previously acknowledged,” Betsy Reed, The Intercept’s editor-in-chief, said previously. “The Intercept will not comment on our sources. But whoever brought the documents in question to light undoubtedly served a noble public purpose.”
Hale faced multiple counts of violating the World War I-era Espionage Act before pleading guilty to the single charge. He was sentenced last month to nearly four years in prison. Prosecutors sought nine.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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