Ron Paul: NSA leaker did a ‘great service to the American people’

{mosads}Campaign finance reports indicated that Snowden twice donated $250 to Paul’s 2012 presidential effort.  In an interview over the weekend, Snowden said he voted for a third party presidential candidate in 2008.

“A lot of people in 2008 voted for Obama. I did not vote for him. I voted for a third party,” he told The Guardian. “But I believed in Obama’s promises. I was going to disclose it [but waited because of his election]. He continued with the policies of his predecessor.”

Paul’s son, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), has said he plans to launch a legal challenge to the NSA programs.

“I’m going to be seeing if I can challenge this at the Supreme Court level. I’m going to be asking the internet providers and all of the phone companies; ask your customers to join me in a class-action lawsuit,” Paul said on FOX News Sunday.

The Justice Department said Sunday they plan a criminal investigation into Snowden’s admission. The White House on Monday refused to comment directly about Snowden, but said more generally they believed the disclosure of classified information was dangerous.

“Everyone who takes an oath or signs an oath understands that divulging classified information is a violation of that law and a violation of that oath,” Carney said, adding that there were appropriate channels for whistle-blowers in the intelligence community to use if they felt that the government was acting in an illegal or unethical way.