MOSCOW, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Former national security contractor Edward Snowden says the Obama administration allows top U.S. officials to lie while persecuting those who tell the truth.
Snowden made the accusation in Moscow last week during a closed-door banquet at which he was presented an award from an organization of U.S. whistle-blowers.
"We have an executive, the Department of Justice, that is unwilling to prosecute high officials who lied to Congress and the country on camera, but they will stop at nothing to persecute someone who told them the truth," Snowden told the delegation from Sam Adams Associates.
The statement was made on one of five short video clips released Saturday by WikiLeaks. Russia's RIA Novosti described it as the first video footage of Snowden released since his arrival in Russia.
The former National Security Agency contractor has been in Moscow since June 23, avoiding arrest by U.S. authorities for leaking documents about classified NSA surveillance programs.
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