NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden Has Taken In More Than $1.2 Million In Speaking Fees While In Exile

Whistleblower Edward Snowden has received more than $1.2 million in speaking fees in the seven years after he leaked sensitive confidential intelligence information to news outlets, a court filing has revealed. Snowden is currently in exile in Russia.

The filing is part of a case by the U.S. government against Snowden, which aims to strip the whistleblower of all profits he made during the speaking engagements. Snowden’s booking agent, Massachusetts-based American Program Bureau, had arranged 67 virtual speeches and other engagements between September 2015 and May 2020.

The first speaking event was for a Hong Kong brokerage CSLA for $50,000 and his last for $10,000 for a speech to Deutsche Telekom. Others involved some U.S. colleges: Georgetown University, the University of Colorado and Middlebury College in Vermont.

Politico noted that the U.S. government has not challenged Snowden's advance on his 2019 book, "Permanent Record," but wants to seize its profits.

The report about Snowden's speaking fees comes after President Trump said on Saturday that he was going to take a look at pardoning the former National Security Agency contractor.

“There are many, many people — it seems to be a split decision — many people think that [Snowden] should be somehow be treated differently and other people think he did very bad things,” Trump told reporters at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

The comments are a major shift for Trump, who in 2013 called Snowden a “traitor” that “should be executed.” Trump had also "guarantee[d]" he would bring Snowden back to the U.S. to face justice.

The top members of the House Armed Services Committee on Monday warned against a potential pardon for Snowden.

“Edward Snowden did enormous harm to our national security and he must stand trial for his actions,” committee Chairman Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., said in a joint statement with ranking member Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas.

Snowden, 37, was previously an employee at Booz Allen Hamilton, a defense contractor with the National Security Agency. In May 2013, he traveled to Hong Kong to meet with several journalists, including reporter Glenn Greenwald and documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras. During the clandestine meeting, Snowden revealed highly classified intelligence information.

One of the top revelations was about the NSA’s PRISM program, a tool used by the agency to gather private information from users of online platforms such as Gmail, Facebook and Outlook.