--- title: Edward Snowden: Eric Holder Says He Performed Public Service description: Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says fugitive leaker Edward Snowden performed a "public service" but still deserves to be punished canonical: https://time.com/4351807/edward-snowden-eric-holder-public-service/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-30T17:54:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T17:55:21.466Z article:section: Politics og:title: Eric Holder: Edward Snowden Performed a 'Public Service' og:description: But Snowden still must be punished for leaking documents, the former Attorney General said og:url: https://time.com/4351807/edward-snowden-eric-holder-public-service/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f40d02237bfcf58/698853065f570f384ab1bcef/edward-snowden.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4949 og:image:height: 2784 og:image:alt: Edward Snowden og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Eric Holder: Edward Snowden Performed a 'Public Service' twitter:description: But Snowden still must be punished for leaking documents, the former Attorney General said twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f40d02237bfcf58/698853065f570f384ab1bcef/edward-snowden.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Eric Holder: Edward Snowden Performed a 'Public Service' > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=229f7acc-0f44-4c95-ac8b-4965fc922e7c&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Daniel Arkin/NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## Daniel Arkin/NBC News May 30, 2016 5:54 PM UTC  US whistleblower Edward Snowden speaks during a live broadcast at the CeBIT in Hanover, Germany, on March 18, 2015. US whistleblower Edward Snowden speaks during a live broadcast at the CeBIT in Hanover, Germany, on March 18, 2015. Ole Spata—picture-alliance/dpa/AP by [Daniel Arkin/NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## Daniel Arkin/NBC News May 30, 2016 5:54 PM UTC Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says fugitive leaker Edward Snowden performed a “public service” but still deserves to be punished. “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,” Holder told former Obama White House adviser David Axelrod on an episode of [“The Axes Files” podcast](http://politics.uchicago.edu/pages/axefiles) released Monday. But the former attorney general was quick to add that Snowden — who leaked explosive documents about American government surveillance programs while… [Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/eric-holder-edward-snowden-performed-public-service-must-be-punished-n582621) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4351807/edward-snowden-eric-holder-public-service/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4351807/edward-snowden-eric-holder-public-service/"},"headline":"Eric Holder: Edward Snowden Performed a 'Public Service'","datePublished":"2016-05-30T17:54:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T17:55:21.466Z","description":"But Snowden still must be punished for leaking documents, the former Attorney General said","url":"https://time.com/4351807/edward-snowden-eric-holder-public-service/","keywords":["National Security"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f40d02237bfcf58/698853065f570f384ab1bcef/edward-snowden.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel Arkin/NBC News"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f40d02237bfcf58/698853065f570f384ab1bcef/edward-snowden.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Edward Snowden","caption":"Edward Snowden","creditText":"Ole Spata—picture-alliance/dpa/AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/national-security/","name":"National Security"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4351807/edward-snowden-eric-holder-public-service/","name":"Eric Holder: Edward Snowden Performed a 'Public Service'"}}]}] ```