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. 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: “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.”