TOP SECRET

Edward Snowden: David Petraeus Disclosed 'Far More Highly Classified' Secrets Than I Did

NSA whistleblower calls out Trump's possible secretary of state.

In a rare face-to-face interview from Moscow with Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden took a pointed swipe at former CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus, who is currently on President-elect Donald Trump's shortlist for secretary of state. Discussing the type of plea bargain he might accept for his decision to hand classified documents to journalists, Snowden cited the case of Petraeus, who shared classified documents with his biographer, with whom he was having an extramarital affair. “Perhaps the best-known case in recent history here is Gen. Petraeus — who shared information that was far more highly classified than I ever did with journalists,” Snowden told Couric. “And he shared this information not with the public for their benefit, but with his biographer and lover for personal benefit — conversations that had information, detailed information, about military special-access programs, that’s classified above top secret, conversations with the president and so on."

"When the government came after him, they charged him with a misdemeanor. He never spent a single day in jail, despite the type of classified information he exposed," he continued. Snowden went on to characterize the discrepancy between the Petraeus case and his as part of a "two-tiered system of justice in the United States where people who are either well connected to government or they have access to an incredible amount of resources, get very light punishments. Whereas people who are from more vulnerable populations, they live in more precarious situations, they're an inner city youth, will be very much tread upon by our justice system.”