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

work. Indeed, under federal laws, whistle-blowers can qualify for multimillion-dollar bounties for exposing financial malfeasance. The whistle-blower Bradley Birkenfeld, for example, after he himself was paroled from prison in 2012, received an award of $104 million for providing data that exposed illicit tax shelter

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

“When you look at the totality”: Hayden, interview with author. Also, “Hayden Interview,” Meet the Press, NBC-TV, Dec. 15, 2013. 146 whistle-blower Bradley Birkenfeld: David Kocieniewski, “Whistle-Blower Awarded $104 Million by LR.S.,” New York Times, Sept. 11, 2012. @ 147. whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg: Martin

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

o, “Hayden interview,” Meet The Press, NBC, December 15, 2013 “Maclean stole immensely valuable. ..”—See Appendix A, Donald Maclean “Whistle blower Bradley Birkenfeld...”-- David Kocieniewski, “Whistle-Blower Awarded $104 Million by I.R.S.” New York Times, September 11, 2012 “Whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg...”-- M