The United States today filed a lawsuit against Edward Snowden, a former employee of the CIA and NSA government agencies who made headlines worldwide in 2013 after he fled the country and leaked top-secret information about NSA’s global and domestic surveillance activities.

And, you would be more surprised to know the reason for this lawsuit.

No, it’s not for leaking secrets; instead, for publishing a book without submitting it to the agencies for pre-publication review.

In his latest book, titled "Permanent Record" and released today on September 17th, Edward Snowden for the first time revealed the story of his life, including how he helped to build that surveillance system and what motivated him to try to bring it down.

According to a press release U.S. Department of Justice just published, with the publication of his book Snowden has violated non-disclosure agreements he signed with both CIA and NSA agencies.

The lawsuit alleges that Snowden published Permanent Record without first submitting the book to the agencies for pre-publication review and also gave public speeches on intelligence-related matters, violating the agreements he signed with the agencies.

The United States government is not looking to stop or restrict the publication or distribution of Permanent Record, but instead, is seeking to recover all proceeds earned by Snowden.

"Under well-established Supreme Court precedent, Snepp v. the United States, the government seeks to recover all proceeds earned by Snowden because of his failure to submit his publication for pre-publication review in violation of his alleged contractual and fiduciary obligations," the press release reads.

Besides Snowden, the US government is also suing the publisher solely to ensure that no funds are transferred to Snowden, or any account at his direction, while the court resolves the United States' claims.

The story is developing...