United States Sues Edward Snowden and You’d be Surprised to Know Why

And you would be more surprised to know the reason for this
lawsuit—No, Snowden has not been sued for leaking NSA secrets,
instead for publishing a book without submitting it to the agencies
for pre-publication review.

In his latest book, titled “Permanent Record” and
released today on September 17th, Edward Snowden for the first time
revealed the story of his life, including how he helped the agency
to built that surveillance system.

Permanent Record also details about the aftermath of Snowden
decision to disclose hundreds of thousands of sensitive documents
exposing the United States mass surveillance
programs^[2] to the world.

According to a press
release^[3] U.S. Department of
Justice just published, Snowden has violated non-disclosure
agreements he signed with both CIA and NSA agencies with the
publication of his book, Permanent Record.

The lawsuit alleges that Snowden published Permanent Record
without first submitting the book to the agencies for
pre-publication review and also gave public speeches on
intelligence-related matters, violating the agreements he signed
with the agencies.

What’s more interesting, the United States government is not
looking to stop or restrict the publication or distribution of
Permanent Record, but instead, is seeking to recover all proceeds
earned by Snowden.

“The government seeks to recover all proceeds earned by Snowden
because of his failure to submit his publication for
pre-publication review in violation of his alleged contractual and
fiduciary obligations,” the press release reads.

Besides Snowden, the US government is also suing the publisher
solely to ensure that no funds are transferred to Snowden, or any
account at his direction, while the court resolves the United
States’ claims.

“The United States’ ability to protect sensitive national security
information depends on employees’ and contractors’ compliance with
their non-disclosure agreements, including their pre-publication
review obligations,” said Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt of
the Department of Justice’s Civil Division.

“This lawsuit demonstrates that the Department of Justice does
not tolerate these breaches of the public’s trust. We will not
permit individuals to enrich themselves, at the expense of the
United States, without complying with their pre-publication review
obligations.”

This lawsuit is separate from the legal criminal charges brought
against Snowden for his alleged disclosures of classified
information about US mass surveillance programs like PRISM^[4], DROPOUTJEEP^[5], XKeyscore^[6], MUSCULAR^[7] and many
more^[8].

Living in Russia since 2013 after the revelation of secret
surveillance programs by U.S. intelligence agencies, Snowden has
just recently appealed to France’s government to grant him
asylum.

The whistleblower said he tried to apply for asylum in France in
2013, when former President Francois Hollande was in power, but was
unsuccessful.