Epstein Secrets

The most sensational of them was a purported document attrib- uted to Snowden concerning the NSA hacking of the cell phone of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel. The story was published on October 23 on the Der Spiegel website. Appelbaum was the co- author of the story. Even though Snowden had by now been in

istent with @ Kucherena’s assertion that he had access to the archive. @ Adding to the intrigue, Poitras was apparently caught by surprise when the Merkel story broke in Der Spiegel. She urgently texted Snowden on what she called “background” (which ordinarily means that a journalist will not attribute

of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said after she was briefed on Snowden’s theft. “I think it’s an act of treason.” The Republican representative Mike Rogers of Michigan, her coun- @ terpart on the House Intelligence Committee, said on the NBC pro- @ gram Meet the Press that Snowden might be working for a

s expose purported U.S. government actions in foreign lands, including the alleged tapping of friendly government officials’ con- versations, such as Angela Merkel’s, these are implicitly conflated with the NSA’s domestic surveillance program, around which a | | Epst_9780451494566_2p_all_r1.indd 303 @ 9/30/16 8:1

ficial who requested anonymity, inter- view with author. 183 German federal prosecutor: Theodore Schleifer, “Germany Drops Probe into U.S. Spying on Merkel,” CNN Politics, June 13, 2015. 184 “Russian planners might have”: Adam Entous, Julian E. Barnes, and Siobhan Gorman, “U.S. Scurries to Shore Up Spy

that other glaring gap in the chain of events that led Snowden to Moscow: his whereabouts and activi- ties during his first eleven days in Hong Kong. Mike Rogers, the @ chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, even sug- @ gested, without any evidence, that Snowden might have been taken to mainl

ve...”—Author’s interview with Source B 30. “German federal prosecutor concluded. ..”-- Theodore Schleifer, “Germany drops probe into U.S. spying on Merkel,” CNN Politics, June 13, 2015 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020412 261 31. “ NSA lost sight of. ..”-- Adam Entous, Julian E. Barnes and Siobhan Gorman, “U.S. S

ains another glaring gap in the chain of events that led Snowden to Moscow: his whereabouts and activities during his first eleven days in Hong Kong. Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, even speculated that Snowden might have been taken to mainland China during this period.