Edward Snowden’s memoir, Permanent Record, quickly became a bestseller after its release in September, but the exiled whistleblower won’t be seeing any of the royalties.
A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that the U.S. government can seize any of Snowden’s profits from the book, the Washington Post reports.
Snowden, who worked as a computer expert for a company that contracted with the National Security Agency, fled to Russia in 2013 to escape charges of espionage stemming from his disclosure of sensitive documents to three journalists. Over the years, Russia has declined to extradite him to the U.S.
The U.S. Department of Justice sued Snowden in September, on the day of his book’s release, arguing that he had violated nondisclosure agreements he had signed while working for the government, and failed to submit the manuscript for his memoir to the government for review.
Federal judge Liam O’Grady agreed, ruling that Snowden isn’t entitled to profit from the book. “The contractual language of the Secrecy Agreements is unambiguous,” O’Grady wrote in his opinion. “Snowden accepted employment and benefits conditioned upon prepublication review obligations.”
Brett Max Kaufman, one of Snowden’s lawyers, said that his legal team would decide whether to appeal the judge’s decision.
“It’s far-fetched to believe that the government would have reviewed Mr. Snowden’s book or anything else he submitted in good faith,” Kaufman said. “For that reason, Mr. Snowden preferred to risk his future royalties than to subject his experiences to improper government censorship.”
Michael Schaub is an Austin, Texas–based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
