# \[If\]President Obama pardons Edward Snowden. Can any US agency do anything?\[ ed.title\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 14, 2016, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-president-obama-pardons-edward-snowden-can-any-us-agency-do-anything-ed-title/765967 "2016-09-14T21:53:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2016, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-president-obama-pardons-edward-snowden-can-any-us-agency-do-anything-ed-title/765967/21 "2016-09-18T20:17:42Z")
I don’t need to present any proof, as I’m not making any assertions. I asked you a simple question. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-president-obama-pardons-edward-snowden-can-any-us-agency-do-anything-ed-title/765967/22 "2016-09-19T04:28:02Z")
In general, failure to file a state income tax form is either a civil infraction (pay some fine, file it, and you’re done) or extremely minor misdemeanor. A prosecutor going after Snowden in a desperate bid to make him spend 30 days in a county lockup is going to look like an idiot and hurt his career pretty badly. Tax evasion is usually a serious crime, but requires that you actively hide income or file a false return, not that you just don’t file a tax return. I know people who went for years without filing one and the biggest penalty is that they couldn’t claim their refund on any older than three years. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-president-obama-pardons-edward-snowden-can-any-us-agency-do-anything-ed-title/765967.md?page=1)