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‘I know it’s going to sound crazy:’ How one man exposed government surveillance

The classified files leaked by Edward Snowden in 2013 revealed the depth to which the United States government was surveilling its own citizens.

Snowden chose journalist Barton Gellman as one of three people given access to the files. Gellman's new book is Dark Mirror: Edward Snowden and The American Surveillance State. It tells about his journey through a mind-bendingly complex investigation that changed the way we think about privacy, freedom, and democracy.

Barton Gellman is a staff writer at The Atlantic and senior fellow at the Century Foundation. In this Town Hall Seattle event on May 27, Gellman was interviewed by his former colleague Carol Leonnig. Leonnig is a staff writer at The Washington Post, and the co-author of A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America.

Town Hall’s Wier Harman introduced the program.

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