FORESIGHT

U.S. Knew of Snowden Files’ Destruction

U.K. smashed newspaper hard drives.

Newly declassified documents show that the White House knew ahead of time that the British government was going to destroy hard drives belonging to The Guardian newspaper that contained NSA documents from Edward Snowden. The Guardian destroyed the data in response to threats from the U.K. government. When news of the destruction broke, White House spokesman Josh Earnest had said publicly when asked whether the U.S. would ever do such a thing, that it would be “very difficult to imagine a scenario in which that would be appropriate.” One of the U.S. officials notified, NSA Deputy Director Richard Ledgett, apparently praised the move by the British government, writing in an email, “Good news, at least on this front.”