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WASHINGTON – The Justice Department on Tuesday sued former intelligence service provider Edward Snowden, seeking to seize the proceeds of his new brief because he had not submitted the manuscript for review before publication so that officials could ensure that it contained no confidential information.
Mr. Snowden, whose leaked top-secret documents on National Security Agency programs in 2013 sparked a global debate on government oversight at the time of the internet, published the brief entitled " Permanent Record ". Tuesday.
He tells his life to the revelations, explaining how he was alarmed by the growth of the security agency's surveillance capabilities – such as his secret systematic collection of American phone call logs – and how he has copied the documents. provided them to the journalists.
As part of the lawsuit, the Justice Department complained that, by publishing the book, Mr. Snowden had violated his legal obligation to leave censorship to the Supreme Court. and the N.S.A. first the manuscript, so he lost any benefit. In order to access classified information, Snowden had signed confidentiality agreements that promised to submit to the examination system any future document relating to his work for the agencies.
"The secret service information should protect our country and not generate a personal profit," said Zachary Terwilliger, US lawyer for the Eastern District of Virginia, where the ministry filed the case. "This lawsuit will ensure that Edward Snowden will not derive any financial benefit from the breach of trust placed in him."
In 2013, Mr. Snowden was indicted in the same district of law violations on espionage, which prohibits the disclosure of potentially dangerous information to national security to an unauthorized person to receive them. The prosecution against him did not continue because Mr Snowden had been living as a fugitive in Russia since then and the Russian government had granted him asylum.
Mr Snowden hoped that the trial would draw more attention to the book, which was aimed at "continuing a global debate on mass surveillance and the free societies its actions inspired," said Ben Wizner, a lawyer for American Civil Liberties Union that represents him, a statement.
Wizner also said the book contained no classified information that the media had not yet released.
"If Mr. Snowden had thought the government would look at his book in good faith, he would have submitted it for review," Wizner said. "But the government continues to insist that the facts known and discussed around the world are still sort of sorted out."
As part of the lawsuit, the Department of Justice also complained that Mr. Snowden had been paid for giving speeches without presenting his remarks scheduled at the time of the hearing. prior review to the pre-publication, and said that he should also be sentenced to the return of these profits.
The lawsuit also named the publisher of Mr. Snowden, Macmillan, as an accused, but said he was only trying to prevent the company from paying royalties to Mr. Snowden, which should now be handed over to the federal government.
Mr Snowden was hailed as a whistleblower by privacy and civil liberties advocates, while he was denounced as a traitor by national security agents. His revelations led to reforms.
Of these, the Congress ended in 2015 the collection by the N.S.A of records of American telephone recordings. It has put in place an alternative system in which the big files remain with the telephone companies and the agency, with the authorization of the court, can access certain newspapers for an anti-terrorist analysis. Since then, the agency has also terminated this program, and We do not know if the legislators will extend a law authorizing it that will soon expire.
Mr. Snowden stated that he would not voluntarily return to the United States because he could not get a fair trial, in his opinion. In an interview with CBS on Monday, he reiterated that the law would prevent him from arguing with jurors that they should acquit him of his violation of the Espionage Act because he was a whistleblower who had leaked information in the public interest.
Public servants and contractors seeking a security clearance routinely commit to submitting papers related to their work for review prior to publication. The censorship system goes back to the limits imposed on a handful of I.A. citizens. officials in the 1950s and has since grown to cover many more people and agencies.
In a 1980 decision, Snepp c. United States, the Supreme Court allowed the C.I.A case to seize the proceeds of a former officer who published a book without submitting it to the agency for review.
Mr. Wizner noted that in April, a group of former national security officers brought an unusual constitutional trial challenging the system as "dysfunctional" in a way that, in their view, unjustifiably restricted their freedom of expression and their due process rights. They argued that the system was plagued by a mosaic of ambiguous policies and vague standards that gave screening officers too much discretion.
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