A federal judge in Virginia has granted permission for whistleblower, Edward Snowden’s, book profits to be seized after failure to comply with a non-disclosure agreement.
Snowden failed to submit his book, Permanent Record, for pre-publication review to scrutinize the content within the book of the controversial NSA whistleblower.
The CIA and National Security Agency (NSA) were meant to analyze the book and any potential speeches for classified content, in adherence with a non-disclosure agreement.
Liam O’Grady, U.S. District Judge of the Eastern District of Virginia, made the ruling on the ex-CIA employee and sub-contractor who now lives in Moscow, Russia, where he is on the run for espionage.
In spite of leaking sensitive classified information on NSA mass-surveillance and collection of communication data, the very same organizations whose information he leaked requested an analysis of his book’s content before publication.
As a response to the book’s publication, the Department of Justice sued Snowden and his publishers, demanding he be stripped of any proceeds made from the book and public presentations, according to Reason.
Judge O’Grady canceled a planned hearing for verbal arguments against the case, saying: “there is no genuine dispute of material fact publicly disclosed the type of information and materials described above in Permanent Record and his speeches…”
An ACLU senior staff attorney, Brett Max Kaufman, said: “It’s farfetched to believe that the government would have reviewed Mr. Snowden’s book or anything else he submitted in good faith. For that reason, Mr. Snowden preferred to risk his future royalties than to subject his experiences to improper government censorship.”
President Donald Trump has repeatedly called Snowden a traitor.
