WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The federal court in Virginia where the Justice Department has decided to charge Edward Snowden with leaking secrets about U.S. surveillance programs has a long track record of hearing cases related not only to national security cases but also to cyber crime.
The United States filed a criminal complaint including charges under a U.S. espionage law against Snowden, a former U.S. National Security Agency contractor, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The charges are the government's first step in an effort to arrest and extradite Snowden from Hong Kong, where he is in hiding, to try him in the United States.