Surveillance: Snowden Doesn’t Rise to Traitor

[Commentary] For several top lawmakers in Washington, Edward Snowden committed the ultimate political crime when he revealed to the world just how broadly and easily the government is collecting phone and Internet records. Among prosecutors and defense lawyers, there’s a name for that kind of hyperbole: overcharging. Whatever his crimes — and he clearly committed some — Snowden did not commit treason, though the people who have long kept the secrets he revealed are now fulminating with rage.

If Snowden had really wanted to harm his country, he could have sold the classified documents he stole to a foreign power, say Russia or China or Iran or North Korea. But even that would not constitute treason, which only applies in cases of aiding an enemy with whom the United States is at war. Snowden broke the agreement he made to keep these materials secret. He appeared forthright in confessing to the act and can use his testimony, should he be brought to trial, to make the case that he exposed a serious abuse of power (though, technically, he did not blow the whistle on fraud or criminal activity). That’s what civil disobedience means: accepting the consequences of one’s actions to make a larger point. Snowden may well be going to jail for exposing practices that should never have been secret in the first place.