Former National Security leaker Edward Snowden has been silent since he disappeared into Russia this summer. But that’s set to change soon, as the European Parliament announced that Snowden is expected to answer questions via videoconference in the near future.
The exact date of Snowden’s testimony on American intelligence activities is not known, and the video is not expected to be shown publicly. But when it does screen for members of the EU’s interior and justice committees, it will be the first time that Snowden has answered questions since he was granted temporary asylum by Russia.
Related: Here’s How Edward Snowden Got ‘Top Secret’ Clearance
"We now have a clear mandate to send written questions to Snowden, and I hope that he can answer this with a video message by mid-January," Jan Philipp Albrecht, a representative of the German Green Party in the European Parliament and a leader of the EU's NSA investigation, said late last week.
Snowden is set to testify despite protests from conservative members of the European Parliament who said the video would further harm transatlantic relations. It comes as U.S. lawmakers visit Brussels today in an attempt to ease European concerns about NSA spying.
The re-emergence of Snowden as part of the EU investigation into the NSA affair is yet another example of the vast damage he’s done to U.S. intelligence gathering. It’s gotten so bad that NSA officials are considering granting him amnesty for an ironclad exchange of the rest of the documents. The video will be another reminder of the broken security clearance process that allowed Snowden access in the first.
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