Former Obama administration Atty. Gen. Eric Holder told former Obama advisor David Axelrod in a podcast released Monday by CNN that Edward Snowden “actually performed a public service” and “harmed American interests.”
Holder’s remarks came in an episode of “The Axe Files,” which CNN produces along with the University of Chicago Institute of Politics.
In one part of the interview, as reported by CNN, Holder said:
"He harmed American interests…I know there are ways in which certain of our agents were put at risk, relationships with other countries were harmed, our ability to keep the American people safe was compromised. There were all kinds of re-dos that had to be put in place as a result of what he did, and while those things were being done we were blind in certain really critical areas. So what he did was not without consequence."
But, as reported by CNN, Holder also said in the interview:
"We can certainly argue about the way in which Snowden did what he did, but I think that he actually performed a public service by raising the debate that we engaged in and by the changes that we made.”