Neither. The very first … The last two charges fall under the Espionage Act. In July 2013, Snowden made headlines again when it was announced that he had been offered asylum in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia. Mills graduated from Laurel High School in Maryland in 2003 and the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2007. Edward Snowden has become a household name in many countries throughout the world due to his revelations about how the US monitors Internet activity. Before President Barack Obama took office, the act had only been used for prosecutorial purposes three times since 1917. Did Edward Snowden break the law when he leaked documents to journalists? This was a good thing. He’d worked security back in the job that got him his clearance in Maryland and he knew it was boring, so he’d banter with the guards and chat about his Rubik’s Cube. Pardoning Snowden would be an affront to Trump’s America-first agenda. “Yes, there are laws on the books that say one thing, but that is perhaps why the pardon power exists – for the exceptions, for the things that may seem unlawful in letters on a page but when we look at them morally, when we look at them ethically, when we look at the results, it seems these were necessary things, these were vital things,” he said in the interview. Someone saved a draft of the classified report where they shouldn’t have (it normally lived in a compartment of Exceptionally Controlled Information). On September 13, 2016, Snowden said in an interview with The Guardian that he would seek a pardon from President Obama. She began her career as a pole-dancing performance artist while living in Hawaii with Snowden. Before Snowden, most of their operations and techniques were shrouded in secrecy, and their secrets make for one of the most fascinating revelations. According to many legal experts, and the U.S. government, his actions violated the Espionage Act of 1917, which identified the leak of state secrets as an act of treason. In May 2014, Snowden gave a revealing interview with NBC News. Realistically we already knew a lot of what Snowden revealed. What did Edward Snowden do after storing the files? ", He also emphasized that his case resonates beyond him. © 2021 Biography and the Biography logo are registered trademarks of A&E Television Networks, LLC. "I'm willing to sacrifice [my former life] because I can't in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building," Snowden said in interviews given from his Hong Kong hotel room. https://www.biography.com/activist/edward-snowden. Newspapers began printing the documents that he had leaked, many of them detailing the monitoring of American citizens. Edward Snowden Is A Hero Who Deserves a Full Pardon. "He did not complete any training or receive any awards," an Army statement said. Edward Snowden is a computer professional who worked for the CIA and was a contractor for the United States government. The Russian government denied U.S. requests to extradite Snowden. Because Ed was a sysadmin, whenever someone accidentally saved a draft copy of something they shouldn’t have, the system alerted him. In 1876, Edward Alexander Bouchet became the first African American to earn a doctorate degree in the United States. "It’s about us. He had almost two million followers in a little over 24 hours. Who is Edward Snowden, and what did he do? He initially planned to relocate to Ecuador for asylum, but, upon making a stopover, he became stranded in a Russian airport for a month when his passport was annulled by the American government. Snowden explained that he viewed himself as a patriot, believing his actions had beneficial results. 'Snowden' Wasn't Easy For Edward Snowden To Watch. So, what did Edward Snowden do? Unlike the NSA, Ed considers that our computer files count as “papers” and our data, including metadata, falls under “effects.” Our phones, clouds, and computers are also our “homes”—are you any more comfortable giving a stranger your unlocked phone than you are letting them into your house? He told Brian Williams that he was a trained spy who worked undercover as an operative for the CIA and NSA, an assertion denied by National Security Adviser Susan Rice in a CNN interview. He left his home in Hawaii in May 2013, travelling to Hong Kong to leak documents to journalist Glenn Greenwald. He studied computing at Anne Arundel Community College, but illness left him unable to complete his coursework, leaving him without a high school diploma until the later completion of his GED. Snowden was born in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, on June 21, 1983. The Unclassified Report on the President’s Surveillance Program was released around the same time Ed was starting to suspect the US might be conducting some form of mass surveillance. Whenever the system encountered a dirty word, it would notify the sysadmin—in this case, Ed—so he could get rid of it. He gave the materials to the journalists he met with in Hong Kong, but he didn't keep copies for himself. His mother works for the federal court in Baltimore (the family moved to Maryland during Snowden's youth) as chief deputy clerk for administration and information technology. by Barbara K. Redman . On the same day his memoir was released, the Department of Justice filed a civil lawsuit alleging that Snowden had violated the nondisclosure agreements he signed with the federal government, entitling the DOJ to all profits from book sales. Required fields are marked *. Snowden remained in hiding for slightly more than a month. On May 20, 2013, Snowden took a flight to Hong Kong, China, where he remained as he orchestrated a clandestine meeting with journalists from the U.K. publication The Guardian as well as filmmaker Laura Poitras. A U.S. House committee issued a scathing report on Thursday accusing National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden of lying about his background, feuding with … Snowden collected top-secret documents regarding NSA domestic surveillance practices that he found disturbing and leaked them. Sorry for all the questions, but I'm curious! The files might contain identifying metadata. Snowden appeared with Poitras and Greenwald via video-conference in February 2015. Why is this such big news? Here is a look at the life of Edward Snowden, who admitted to leaking information about US surveillance programs to the press. The Fourth Amendment in particular resonated with him, because it covered privacy. "When the decisions that rule us are taken in secret, we lose the power to control and govern ourselves," said Poitras during her acceptance speech. In 2009, after being suspected of trying to break into classified files, he left to work for private contractors, among them Dell and Booz Allen Hamilton, a tech consulting firm. What did Edward Snowden do after he blew the whistle? Secret court orders allow NSA to sweep up Americans' phone records. Ed read it and discovered that the US government was in fact conducting mass surveillance. Edward Snowden leaked documents that showed the existence and shocking extent of a global mass surveillance system that the US government used to spy on the personal communications of millions – if not hundreds of millions – of Americans and foreign citizens with no links to terrorism. More than 100,000 people signed an online petition asking President Obama to pardon Snowden by late June 2013. Tante Jans: The Favorite Aunt Shared Corrie’s Faith. However in February 2016 he said that he’d return to the U.S. in exchange for a fair trial. Some say he is a "hero" while some say he is a villain? In April 2014, well before becoming president, Donald Trump tweeted that Edward Snowden should be executed for the damage his leaks had caused to the U.S. I turn on the TV and Edward Snowden is all over the news. Ed thought about trying to keep his name out of the leak, but ultimately decided not to for a couple of reasons: Here's what you'll find in our full Permanent Record summary: Your email address will not be published. Differences Between Leaking and Whistleblowing If Snowden had been a patriotic whistle blower, he would have first found legal avenues for his pursuit in reigning in the NSA. He couldn’t find it and eventually gave up.