Edward Snowden, the most controversial whistleblower, recently released a book on his life and activities surrounding his leak of confidential US documents. The Fed has sued Snowden, condemned the book in the US and plans to confiscate all proceeding from Snowden.
The book, Permanent Record, recounts Snowden’s time as an NSA contractor and his efforts to expose the US government’s mass surveillance activities. Although the memoir goes on sale today, the DOJ announced that it wants to recover all proceeds from the book because it technically violates a non-disclosure agreements Snowden signed with the CIA and NSA “the non-disclosure agreements he signed with both CIA and NSA”.
Hearing about this, Snowden has suggested that he might place his wealth in Bitcoin to avoid the United States government confiscating the funds. In a tweet on Sept. 17, Snowden, conveyed his response to that Washington is suing him over the content of his new book.
It is interesting to note that the US government cannot stop the Publisher, MacMillan, from not publishing the book as it goes against the Freedom of Speech on the United States. And so, the DOJ has responded by trying to stop the funds flowing from MacMillan to Snowden.