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Lawmakers say Snowden is no whistleblower

FILE - This June 6, 2013 file photo, the National Security Agency (NSA) campus in Fort Meade, Md. A House intelligence committee report on NSA leaker Edward Snowden says he’s not a whistleblower and that the vast majority of the documents he stole were military and defense secrets that had nothing to do with Americans’ privacy. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
FILE - This June 6, 2013 file photo, the National Security Agency (NSA) campus in Fort Meade, Md. A House intelligence committee report on NSA leaker Edward Snowden says he’s not a whistleblower and that the vast majority of the documents he stole were military and defense secrets that had nothing to do with Americans’ privacy. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File) FILE - This June 6, 2013 file photo, the National Security Agency (NSA) campus in Fort Meade, Md. A House intelligence committee report on NSA leaker Edward Snowden says he’s not a whistleblower and that the vast majority of the documents he stole were military and defense secrets that had nothing to do with Americans’ privacy. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

By Associated Press 1 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) – A House intelligence committee report is calling National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden a “serial exaggerator and fabricator” who doesn’t fit the profile of a whistleblower.

Snowden’s attorney denounces the committee’s report.

Separately, all members of the committee sent a letter to President Barack Obama on Thursday urging him not to pardon Snowden. Republicans and Democrats sent the letter ahead of Friday’s opening of director Oliver Stone’s film “Snowden.”

The letter to Obama says that Snowden’s claim that he stole the classified information and disclosed it to protect Americans, privacy and civil liberties is undercut by his actions.

The lawmakers say that rather than availing himself of lawful avenues to express legal, moral, or ethical qualms with U.S. intelligence activities, he stole 1.5 million classified documents from NSA networks.