Judge rules Snowden cannot profit from book

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Edward Snowden cannot profit from his book published this year because he violated secrecy agreements with U.S. security agencies.

U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady decided the former CIA employee and National Security Agency (NSA) contractor broke his contract by not getting pre-publication clearance from the CIA and NSA for classified information. Snowden released his book, titled “Permanent Record,” in September.

“‘Permanent Record’ contains information which both the CIA and NSA secrecy agreements obligated Snowden to submit for pre-publication review,” O’Grady said in the ruling.

“Accordingly, Snowden’s publication of ‘Permanent Record’ without prior submission for prepublication review breached the CIA and NSA Secrecy agreements,” he continued.

The judge also ruled that Snowden violated these agreements when speaking at an internet security trade fair and two college appearances. 

Snowden and his legal team argued that the CIA and NSA would not have reviewed his book in “good faith” and in an appropriate amount of time, but the judge said that argument is invalid because he didn’t attempt to go through the pre-publication review process.

Brett Max Kaufman, senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) Center for Democracy and a member of Snowden’s legal team, said they disagree with the ruling and will “review our options.”

“It’s farfetched to believe that the government would have reviewed Mr. Snowden’s book or anything else he submitted in good faith,” he said in a statement. “For that reason, Mr. Snowden preferred to risk his future royalties than to subject his experiences to improper government censorship.”

“Permanent Record” details how he made his decision to leak information about the controversial U.S. surveillance system in 2013, causing him to be charged under the U.S. Espionage Act and flee to Russia. 

The U.S. government responded to the publication by attempting to block Snowden from making money off the book but did not attempt to stop its distribution.

The ACLU also filed a suit in partnership with the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University to protest the government’s prepublication review process.