Snowden performed 'public service' to US: Eric Holder

Former US Attorney General Eric Holder has praised former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, saying he performed a valuable "public service" by leaking surveillance programs.

"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 told David Axelrod on "The Axe Files," a podcast produced by CNN and the University of Chicago Institute of Politics.

But still Snowden must be punished for leaking a trove of classified intelligence documents, added Holder, according to a report published by CNN on Monday.

"Now I would say that doing what he did — and the way he did it — was inappropriate and illegal,” he said. Snowden "harmed American interests."

"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," said Holder, who was running the Justice Department when Snowden leaked US surveillance secrets.

Holder urged Snowden to return to the United States and face courts for his actions. "I think that he's got to make a decision. He's broken the law in my view. He needs to get lawyers, come on back, and decide, see what he wants to do: Go to trial, try to cut a deal. I think there has to be a consequence for what he has done."

"But, 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,” he emphasized.

Snowden, who lives in Russia where he has been granted asylum, has said that US government surveillance methods far surpass those of an ‘Orwellian’ state, referring to George Orwell’s classic novel “1984,” which describes a society where personal privacy is continuously invaded by spy agencies.

Snowden began leaking classified intelligence documents in June 2013, revealing the extent of the NSA’s spying activities, including the massive collections of phone records of Americans and foreign nationals as well as political leaders around the world. Snowden’s asylum in Moscow has been a source of tension between the US and Russia, with US President Barack Obama canceling a planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit in 2013 after Russia agreed to grant him asylum.

Snowden said earlier this month he would come back to the United States if the government was willing to offer him a fair trial.

Last year, a film about Snowden won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards.

Accepting the award, Citizenfour director Laura Poitras, flanked by journalist and collaborator Glenn Greenwald, said, “The disclosures of Edward Snowden don’t only expose a threat to our privacy but to our democracy itself.”  

Poitras expressed gratitude for the sacrifices Snowden has made as a result of his revelations, adding, “I share this award with Glenn Greenwald and the many other journalists who are taking risks to expose the truth.”

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