Former USAG: Snowden Performed A “Public Service”

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Edward Snowden, the infamous NSA whistleblower, has found an unlikely supporter in former US Attorney General Eric Holder, who has said that Snowden performed a “public service” by prompting a public debate over surveillance. Still, Holder says Snowden must face up to his crimes and pay a price for illegally leaking a cache of classified documents to the public.

“We can certainly argue about the way in which Snowden did what he did, but I think that he actually performed a public service by raising the debate that we engaged in and by the changes that we made,” Holder said in an interview with David Axelrod, former Senior Adviser to President Obama who hosts a podcast produced by CNN and the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, “The Axe Files.”

Still, Holder contends Snowden’s mode of operation was problematic, endangered agents, and he should be held accountable for it.

“Now I would say that doing what he did — and the way he did it — was inappropriate and illegal,” Holder added.

“He harmed American interests,” said Holder. “I know there are ways in which certain of our agents were put at risk, relationships with other countries were harmed, our ability to keep the American people safe was compromised. There were all kinds of re-dos that had to be put in place as a result of what he did, and while those things were being done we were blind in certain really critical areas. So what he did was not without consequence.”

Holder said that Snowden, who has been in self-imposed exile in Russia since January 2014, should return to the US and deal with the consequences, but that any hearing of his case should take into account the benefit of his actions.

“I think in deciding what an appropriate sentence should be, I think a judge could take into account the usefulness of having had that national debate.”