Snowden trial

Prosecution Opening Statement

Edward Snowden is guilty of espionage, violation of the Intellectual Property law, and treason. Treason against the United States according to the US Constitution, “shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.” He also broke the contract he signed with the National Security Agency.  

The Espionage Act of 1917 put laws in action on the matter of espionage, also known as spying.

This act states: “To convey information with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the armed forces of the United States or to promote the success of its enemies.” Going against the espionage act is punishable by death or up to and including 30 years in jail. “Giving national defense information to someone without a security clearance and revealing classified information about communications intelligence.” This is exactly what Edward Snowden did when he leaked information regarding over two million classified NSA documents to Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian.  

The Intellectual Property law states that owners and/or companies are entitled to trade secrets, defined as something created by a person or company that is not generally known material or personally divulged. Snowden leaked trade secrets of several companies - PRISM, MUSCULAR, XKeyscore, and Tempora - all of which are privately owned internet surveillance companies contracted by the NSA.

Our opposition’s argument has nothing to do with the legality of the treason committed by Snowden. The acts of the government, whether they moral or not, does not change the fact that Snowden committed treason by stealing and exposing classified information. 

Treason against the United States according to the US Constitution, “shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.” Snowden committed treason by leaking documents to China and Russia, self proclaimed enemies of the USA. These documents also stopped threats of national security. Over 3,000 lives were lost in 9/11, and these classified surveillance programs stopped at least 5 terrorist attacks. If each of these planned terrorist attacks were as large as 9/11, that’s over 15,000 American lives lost. 15,000 lives saved are worth being under surveillance. 9/11 was one of the greatest and most recent tragedies in US history we cannot forget the fact that these approved government programs stopped at least 5 attacks of equal or greater scale, is minor surveillance really a great price to pay for protection? 

The Espionage Act of 1917 put laws in action on the matter of espionage, also known as spying. This act states: “To convey information with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the armed forces of the United States or to promote the success of its enemies.” Going against the espionage act is punishable by death or up to and including 30 years in jail. “Giving national defense information to someone without a security clearance and revealing classified information about communications intelligence" is exactly what Edward Snowden did when he leaked information regarding over two million classified NSA documents to Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian.  

The defense said that this went against the fourth amendment, saying that the information stolen was “unreasonable.” If by “unreasonable”, they mean the NSA only veiwing a coding of 1 and 0s, then sure. All the NSA sees is binary  encryption of the messages sent between people. They do not see a specific text, or a specific email, unless they found terrorist encryption within, and do not look through most of the information taken. This is in no way the “unreasonable” you presented, and the fourth amendment protects against. 

Snowden Main Argument 

  Snowden cost the US billions of taxpayer dollars by forcing the NSA to start over in tracking many terrorists and the damage done by leaking these documents will force the government to spend an inordinate amount on fixing these damages 

Snowden took the job in Hawaii only to gain access to these surveillance documents, “[The job] granted me access to lists of machines all over the world the NSA hacked. That is why I accepted that position,” he said to the South China Morning Post.

-Snowden had an online persona called the TheTrueHooha, and he commented on political issues, saying, The New York Times was “like wikileaks” and deserved to go bankrupt; sources who leaked “classified shit” to the Times ought to “be shot in the balls.” He’s is a very large hypocrite.

-Snowden joined the US army special forces but was discharged, making him not only a distrustworthy soul, and also gives him great reasons for a personal Vendetta

- there is a secret congress that governs all of the NSAs actions and they approved this surveillance 

-snowden chose not to raise his concerns to the proper NSA officials because he had previously been "treated poorly" by a superior whose private encrypted email snowden hacked into. 

- snowden went and gave information to two of the Americas greatest enemy's 

-snowden chose not to raise his concerns to the proper NSA officials because he had previously been "treated poorly" by a superior whose private encrypted email snowden hacked into. 

- leaking these documents may have seriously compromised US security and the safety of its citizens 

-snowden cost the US billions of taxpayer dollars by forcing the NSA to start over in tracking many terrorists and the damage done by leaking these documents will force the government to spend a inordinate amount on fixing these damages 

- Snowden is anti American and hates Obama and obamacare and how elderly people don’t contribute to society (comments on chat room as proof)