Minnesota Congressmember Ilhan Omar is calling on President Joe Biden to commute the sentence of Daniel Hale, who is serving 45 months in a federal prison for leaking classified information about the U.S. drone and targeted assassination program. 

St. Paul, December 17 (RHC)-- Minnesota Congressmember Ilhan Omar is calling on President Joe Biden to commute the sentence of Daniel Hale, who is serving 45 months in a federal prison for leaking classified information about the U.S. drone and targeted assassination program. 

Illan Hale pleaded guilty in March of 2021 to one count of violating the World War I-era Espionage Act.  His lawyers say he sought to bring attention to “immoral government conduct committed under the cloak of secrecy and contrary to public statements of then-President Obama regarding the alleged precision of the United States military’s drone program.” On Thursday, Congressmember Omar said Biden should pardon Daniel Hale and set him free.

Rep. Ilhan Omar said: “Daniel’s case is exactly what the pardon power is for, where the letter of the law cannot capture the complex moral judgment that human beings make in extraordinary circumstances.  I take the prohibition on revealing classified information extremely seriously, but what Daniel did was courageous. What Daniel did was patriotic.  What he did was public service.”