Gordon Humphrey (Getty)
Today The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald published the correspondence between former New Hampshire GOP senator Gordon Humphrey and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The first email, from Humphrey to Snowden, thanked and praised Snowden for his leak exposing the government’s massive surveillance systems, providing that, “you have not leaked information that would put harms way to any intelligence agent.”
Humphrey, who served two terms as a senator from New Hampshire from 1979 to 1990, then verified to Glenn Greenwald that he did, in fact, send the email to Snowden. You can read both letters below:
Snowden promptly responded saying to Humphrey, “I only wish more of our lawmakers shared your principles – the actions I’ve taken would not have been necessary,” and “my intention, which I outlined when this began, is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them. I remain committed to that. Though reporters and officials may never believe it, I have not provided any information that would harm our people – agent or not – and I have no intention to do so.”
He ended with a touch of the Snowden-dramatic flare saying, “You may rest easy knowing I cannot be coerced into revealing that information, even under torture.”
Former Senator Humphrey is one of the only, if not the first, current or former U.S. lawmaker to publicly praise Snowden and his leak.
