A reporter for The Guardian on Tuesday defended Edward Snowden’s credibility following the revelation that the 29-year-old National Security Agency leaker did not earn as much money as a government contractor as he originally claimed.
In outing himself as the source of the NSA leaks reported on by The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald, Snowden said he earned a salary of $200,000 while working at government contractor Booz Allen. But in a statement issued Tuesday, Booz Allen said that Snowden had in fact earned $122,000.
Ed Pilkington, chief reporter for The Guardian U.S., dismissed the notion that the salary discrepancy might signal a tendency for Snowden to exaggerate.
“One hundred and twenty-two thousand, two hundred thousand is a small difference. I can’t explain that,” Pilkington said during an appearance on MSNBC. “But up to now, everything that he’s said — all the articles that we’ve published largely by Glenn — have been proven to be accurate. There have been no denials and they haven’t come back with any misinformation or anything like that. So, the big stuff has been totally bang on.”
