The Snowden archive: where did it go?
Original: What happened to the Snowden archive
Why This Matters
One of the largest national-security archives in history sits unpublished, with no clear accountability for why.
The last document from the Snowden archive was published on 29 May 2019 by The Intercept, which formally closed its archive in March 2019. Since then, no journalist or outlet has published a single document, despite multiple holders — including Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras — claiming to still possess full copies.
Edward Snowden began reaching out to journalists in December 2012, months before sharing any material. On 21 May 2013, he sent Poitras and Barton Gellman the keys to an encrypted archive called 'Pandora,' containing roughly 50,000 documents. Copies were distributed to multiple parties: Greenwald, Der Spiegel, The Guardian, The New York Times, ProPublica, and several unnamed individuals — including Trevor Timm of the Freedom of the Press Foundation.
Publication tapered off quickly. The Guardian stopped in February 2014. Der Spiegel in January 2015. The New York Times and ProPublica in August 2015. Only The Intercept continued, until it shuttered its archive in March 2019 and released a final batch eleven weeks later.
Since 29 May 2019, nothing. Greenwald stated in March 2019 that he and Poitras 'individually and independently, continue to possess full copies.' Poitras said in 2022 the archive 'still exists' and contains 'a vast amount of information... of enormous contemporary and historical significance.' Greenwald put the total at 'hundreds of thousands of documents, if not more' in 2023. Yet neither has published anything from it in over seven years, and neither has offered a public explanation for why. The reasons given by outlets for stopping — aging relevance, budget cuts, shifting editorial priorities — are catalogued in the piece, but none fully account for a complete, coordinated cessation across every holder.