HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019665.jpg

The Keys to the Kingdom Are Missing | 177

tions. When they discussed Snowden's legal situation in America,
Snowden expressed an interest in obtaining some form of amnesty
from prosecution. Wizner was willing to attempt to explore making
a possible deal with the Department of Justice, but it would not be an
easy task, especially if Snowden had turned over NSA documents to
a foreign power.

Even to argue that Snowden was merely an NSA whistle-blower
presented a serious challenge for Wizner. The ACLU had been
involved with previous NSA whistle-blowers, but Snowden's case
differed from those cases in important ways. Those whistle-blowers
had not intentionally taken any NSA documents. Snowden, on the
other hand, had not only taken a large number of NSA documents
but also released tens of thousands of these top secret files to jour-
nalists based in Germany and Brazil, as well as to other unauthor-
ized recipients. In addition, the Whistleblower Protection Act, passed
by Congress in 1989, does not exempt an insider, such as Snowden,
who signs a secrecy oath from the legal consequences of disclos-
ing classified documents to journalists or other unauthorized people.
Consequently, getting some form of amnesty for Snowden required
bolstering his image as a person taking personal risks to fight for
America. But if Snowden had taken even a single top secret docu-
ment to Russia, it would strengthen the case in the court of public
opinion that he had stolen communications intelligence secrets with
the intent to damage the United States, which under the provisions
of federal law could be considered espionage. In this regard, Kucher-
ena's disclosure was extremely damaging to Snowden's position, and
Snowden had, after all, already found refuge in Russia. Snowden
had two options, according to Wizner, the "first is to be where he is
in Russia. And the second is to be in a maximum security prison cell,
cut off from the world." These, of course, would be the options of
any espionage defector who fled to Russia.

One way to mitigate the damage was for Snowden to substitute
a new narrative. Wizner took it upon himself to screen potential
journalists and other outlets for Snowden. He told a reporter for
The New York Times that, except for Oliver Stone, all individu-
als who have "met with Snowden have just gone through me, and
we've hooked it up." Nor did he limit his extraordinary control to

Epst_9780451494566_2p_all_r1.z.indd 177 9/30/16 11:09 AM
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019665