Although Congress is poised this week to pass a bill aimed at undoing the NSA’s phone dragnet revealed by Edward Snowden, the White House’s thirst for prosecuting the intelligence contractor-turned-whistleblower hasn’t waned.
“The fact is that Mr. Snowden committed very serious crimes and the US government and the department of justice believe that he should face them,” administration Press Secretary Josh Earnest said during a briefing on Monday.
He was responding to a reporter who asked if the administration was reconsidering prosecuting Snowden, in light of developments in the legislative and judicial branches. Last month, a court ruled that the NSA’s bulk phone records collection program is illegal.
“We believe that Mr. Snowden should return to the United States where he will face due process and he will have the opportunity to make that case in a court of law,” Earnest added.
The Espionage Act, however, precludes those charged under it from mounting a defense based on claims of having acted in good conscience, as a whistleblower. Snowden himself has said this is a reason he believes he won’t receive a fair trial, should he return to the Untied States.
Earnest also claimed “there exists mechanisms for whistleblowers to raise concerns about sensitive national security programs,” and that Snowden didn’t comply with them when he released information about them to reporters.
The Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protect Act is notoriously weak, however, and doesn’t prevent the intelligence community from retaliating against whistleblowers. Fellow NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake, for example, learned that after he was indicted in 2010 on espionage charges, despite having used proper internal channels to blow the whistle on illegal NSA surveillance. Drake was able to elude jail time after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.
Snowden additionally claims that, as a private contractor, he wasn’t afforded even the weak protection of federal whistleblower laws.
He has also said that he did try to work with his superiors by talking to “10 distinct officials,” but said that his concerns were rebuffed.
Snowden has lived in Russia for nearly two years. In 2013, he left the US, and released a cache of documents to three journalists—Glenn Greenwald, Barton Gellman, and Laura Poitras. The disclosure included a documents containing top-secret information about NSA surveillance programs.
