What Happened to the Snowden Archive

The last document from the Snowden archive was published on 29 May 2019. After The Intercept ceased its archive in March 2019, no other news outlet, journalist, or institution has published a single document from the Snowden archive. Snowden approached journalists months prior to sharing the material, first reaching out to Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald in December 2012.

Despite initial difficulties, Snowden eventually shared the archive with Poitras and Gellman in late May 2013 through encrypted files. Poitras, Gellman, and Greenwald each received copies, some of which were held by others who could not read the documents due to encryption. The Guardian published its first Snowden story with a document on 6 June 2013, while other outlets received their copies from the Guardian.

However, neither the Guardian nor any other outlet has published additional documents from the archive in seven years, despite claiming to possess full copies.