Topeka man asks federal court to stop Edward Snowden film before the Oscars

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday denied a Topeka mans request for an emergency injunction to prevent the documentary Citizenfour from being shown before the Academy Awards ceremony Sunday.

Horace Edwards, 89, first filed suit in December, claiming producers of the documentary, which chronicles former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowdens leak of classified documents, shouldnt be allowed to profit from what Edwards called Snowdens crimes. The lawsuit was filed Dec. 19 in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan.

On Feb. 13, a district court issued an order refusing to grant Edwards motion to seal the classified records revealed in the film, allowing the documentary to continue to be distributed, according to Jean Lamfers, Edwards attorney.

This is not a leak case about typical government inefficiencies, Lamfers wrote in the appeal Friday. It is about the classified information contained in Citizenfour that goes too far and discloses for any viewers consumption, serious national security information stolen by Snowden.

Citizenfour is one of five films being considered in the Best Documentary Feature category at Sundays award show.

Edwards, who served in the Navy during World War II and says he was granted several security clearances by the Atomic Energy Commission, felt compelled to file the lawsuit after seeing the documentary in late 2014.

I was kind of amazed a bit shocked, I guess as it dawned on me what it was a story about, he told The Topeka Capital-Journal during an interview Dec. 31.

Snowden was working as an NSA contractor for the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton when, in the summer of 2013, he released thousands of documents to journalists, revealing the agencys national and international surveillance efforts. He was charged with violating the Espionage Act and has spent nearly two years in asylum inside Russia.

Named as defendants in Edwards original lawsuit were Snowden, Praxis Films Inc., Participant Media, The Weinstein Company and producers Laura Poitras, Diane Weyermann and Jeffrey Skoll. After the district courts refusal order on Feb. 13, Lamfers filed a second complaint on Feb. 14, adding several other defendants to the lawsuit, including the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and Home Box Office Inc.

Such widespread distribution of Citizenfour, coupled with the publicity the night before on the Oscars broadcast, (by) HBO will bring widespread release of classified information harmful to national security to small, secret cells of members of recognized, but de-centralized terrorist organizations, Fridays court filing argued.

Follow this link:
Topeka man asks federal court to stop Edward Snowden film before the Oscars