Edward Snowden said Thursday that a House committee wasted its time and money producing a report that criticized him for stealing more than 1 million documents, back when he was a National Security Agency contractor.
“Unsurprising that HPSCI’s report is rifled with obvious falsehoods,” Snowden tweeted of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence’s report. “The only surprise is how accidentally exonerating it is.”
“After three years of investigation and millions of dollars, they can present no evidence of harmful intent, foreign influence or harm. Wow,” he added.
The report labeled Snowden a “serial exaggerator” and a “fabricator” and not a whistleblower, as Snowden has described himself. The report states he stole the documents that were released to the public and claimed he showed “reckless disregard” for national security.
The report claims Snowden is in touch with Russian intelligence officials, something he denies. He said the only evidence the panel presents is from a man who is a conspiracy theorist who thinks the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is behind the assassination of Andrei Karlov, the Russian ambassador to Turkey who was killed this week.
Even that quote was from someone who was “only speculating,” Snowden said.
“This is the standard of evidence the worst claims they level are based on, after three years and millions of dollars. But it goes on,” Snowden said.
Among the other claims he refuted was that he took a trip to China while in Japan. He said that never happened and the government knows it because officials could see how his passport was used.
He also denied going to a hacker conference and meeting Chinese hackers before telling the National Security Agency how great China is. “False and insane,” he said.
He added that he never went to a hacker conference until 2014, after he had left government and after the documents were leaked.
