Eric Holder gives props to Edward Snowden – usatoday.com

Eric Holder(Photo: Chris Kleponis, epa)

Fugitive former National Security Agency contractorEdward Snowden damaged U.S. interests but also performed a public service when he leaked national security documents in 2013, former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder said Monday.

Holder, in The Axe Filepodcasthosted by Democratic political operativeDavid Axelrod and distributed by CNN, said Snowden's exposure of global surveillance programs, some operated by the NSA,was "inappropriate and illegal." Holder said some agents were put in jeopardy and relationships with other nations were strained.

After Snowden's revelations, federal courts ruled against the NSA's mass collection of American phone records. Congress subsequently passed the USA Freedom Act, which limits the collection of such records.

"We can certainly argue about the way in which Snowden did what he did, but I think that he actually performed a public service by raising the debate that we engaged in and by the changes that we made," Holder said.

Snowden, who fled to Hong Kong and now lives inRussia, faces two counts of Espionage Act violations and one count of theft. He has said he would return to face those charges if he believed he would get a fair trial and would be allowed to use a "public interest" defense.

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Holder, the first black U.S. attorney general, served from 2009 to 2015. Hesaid Snowden should come back to face the consequences of his actions.

"Go to trial, try to cut a deal. I think there has to be a consequence for what he has done," Holder said. "ButI think ...a judge could take into account the usefulness of having had that national debate."

Snowden did not directly react to Holder's comments. Snowden did, however,retweet Glenn Greenwald, one of the journalists to whom he leaked information. Greenwaldposted: "People so often become honest and candid only once they leave government."

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Eric Holder gives props to Edward Snowden - usatoday.com