Rep. King: ‘Awarding the Pulitzer to Snowden enablers is a disgrace’

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) on Monday blasted the decision to award Pulitzer Prizes to the two major newspapers that exposed the National Security Agency’s surveillance operations through documents leaked by Edward Snowden.

Awarding the Pulitzer to Snowden enablers is a disgrace

— Rep. Pete King (@RepPeteKing) April 14, 2014

The Washington Post and The Guardian newspaper both won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for public service. The winners were announced just after 3 p.m. on Monday.

Glenn Greenwald won for his reporting on the NSA and Snowden, published in The Guardian, where he no longer works. Barton Gellman won for his reporting on similar coverage in the Post.

Both journalists worked with Snowden, the former NSA contractor, early on when he began leaking highly classified U.S. government documents last June.

Some have hailed Snowden as a whistleblower, and others have called him a traitor. The documents he’s leaked, and the reporting done on them, disclosed the scope of the NSA’s programs domestically and abroad.

The Obama administration has subsequently announced reforms to these activities, including a proposal to move the metadata, or phone records, out of the government’s hands.

Snowden has been living in Russia since last August after its government granted him temporary asylum. The White House has downplayed the idea that it would grant clemency to Snowden who faces espionage charges in the U.S.