Epstein Secrets

09 @ 9/29/16 5:51 Pa | | HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019597 110 | HOW AMERICA LOST ITS SECRETS tary, the hero of the 2016 Hollywood movie Snowden (directed by Oliver Stone), and a consultant to the 2015 season of the televi- sion series Homeland. He would be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. He would attract

pst_9780451494566_2p_all_r1.z.indd 177 @ 9/30/16 11:09 AM | | HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019665 178 | HOW AMERICA LOST ITS SECRETS interviews. In the case of Stone’s movie Snowden, Wizner asked for the right to veto any shots featuring Snowden in the film. In it, he would tell handpicked journalists that he had

nterview with Kucherena was a coup because, until then, he had not discussed Snowden in a television interview. About halfway through the interview, Shevardnadze brought up the highly sensitive subject of the disposition of the NSA docu- ments. If anyone was in a position to know about these documents, it was

ut Russia like it’s the worst place on earth. Russia’s great. —EDWARD SNOWDEN, Moscow, 2015 EFORE FLYING TO Moscow, I arranged to have dinner with Oliver Stone at an Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side of New York. I had greatly respected Stone’s ability as a film director after watching him work on Wa

E FLYING TO Moscow, I arranged to have dinner with Oliver Stone at an Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side of New York. I had greatly respected Stone’s ability as a film director after watching him work on Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, a film in which I had a cameo role. I had also debated Stone

sitive for journalists. So I wanted to find out from Kucherena which documents Snowden had taken to Russia. I went about it in a roundabout way. When Shevardnadze asked him about the secret material Snowden might reveal in Russia, Kucher- ena pointedly called her attention to Snowden’s CIA service, suggest- ing

tate Department explicitly told: Ibid. 175 “I had spent ten years”: Hill, “How ACLU Attorney Ben Wizner Became Snowden’s Lawyer.” 176 Inthe case of Stone’s movie: Irina Alexsander, “Edward Snowden’s Long, Strange Journey to Hollywood,” New York Times Magazine, Sept. 4, 2016. 176 “I went the first six

w with author. 248 $1 million: Mike Fleming Jr, “Oliver Stone Buys Edward Snowden Russian Lawyer's ‘Novel’ Abo

nce Expert Guilty of Espionage,” Chicago Tribune, June 6, 1986. CHAPTER 26 The Handler 261 “As for [Snowden’s] communication”: Kucherena interview, Shevardnadze, “Snowden Believes He Did Everything Right.” 261 learned from a Russian researcher: Vassili Sonkine, interview with author. 261 When I had been inv

ugh he was acting without compensation from Snowden, later received the stunning sum of one million dollars from Open Road Films, the distributor for Oliver Stone’s “Snowden” movie, for the rights to his not completed novel called “Time of the Octopus,” a story based on his story of Snowden’s stay at the airport.

ng to Moscow, I arranged to have dinner with Oliver Stone at Parma, an Italian restaurant on the upper east side of New York. I had greatly respected Stone ability as a film director after watching him work in Wall Street IT: Money Never Sleeps, a film in which I had a cameo role. I also had debated Ston

efense was what Snowden did with the second set afer his meetings with the journalists in Hong Kong. Did he take these documents with him to Russia? Shevardnadze, who makes it a point to drill her interviewees, pressed Kucherena as to whether Snowden still had these NSA files, or “material” in Russia. The dial

st of these clients were reputed to be part of Putin’s inner circle. To break the ice, I asked him about Oliver Stone. I knew he had a small role in Oliver Stone’s forthcoming movie “Snowden.” in which he plays Snowden’s lawyer in Moscow. “T was impressed by how few takes he needed to shoot my scene,” he answer

ived one call back from Kucherena’s assistant, Valentina Vladimirovna Kvirvova. She wanted to know how I knew Oliver Stone. He told her of my part in Stone’s movie Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps. That was the last he had heard from her. Meanwhile a Moscow based journalist told me that she had waited 1

sitive for journalists. So I sought to find out from Kucherena which documents Snowden had taken to Russia. I went about it in a roundabout way. When Shevardnadze asked him about the secret material Snowden had might reveal in Russia, Kucherena pointedly called her attention to Snowden’s CIA service, suggesting

ring my investigation over the past three years, nearly every element of the narrative Mr. Snowden has provided, which reached its final iteration in Oliver Stone’s 2016 movie, “Snowden,” is demonstrably false. This narrative began soon after Mr. Snowden arrived in Hong Kong, where he arranged to meet with Laura

en Mr. Snowden and HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019208 --- PAGE BREAK --- Russian authorities. On Sept. 23, 2013, Mr. Kucherena gave a long interview to Sophie Shevardnadze, a journalist for Russia Today television. When Ms. Shevardnadze directly asked him if Mr. Snowden had given all the documents he had taken from the