The lawsuit sees Snowden accused of failing to submit the manuscript for review, so government agencies could confirm it doesn’t contain any confidential information. Interestingly, the justice department is not seeking to ban the distribution of the book – instead, it only wants to seize all profits made from its sales. In a release by DoJ, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, G. Zachary Terwilliger, said intelligence information should protect the nation and not provide personal monetary benefits: In the book, Snowden describes the life that led him to reveal the US government tactics that allegedly endangered the privacy of people. Later, that act led to a case against him in 2013 for the violation of the Espionage Act. Ben Wizner, the attorney representing Snowden in this case, brushed off allegations of the book containing state secrets: Snowden, living in exile in Moscow, tweeted that despite the government filing a lawsuit, his book has become a bestseller in the world.
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 17, 2019 It’s not clear at the moment if seizing profits from sales will affect the book’s distribution. For now, the lawsuit has certainly got more people talking about it.
