Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has said NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden performed a “public service” by leaking documents revealing NSA mass surveillance. Holder made the comments while speaking on a podcast hosted by David Axelrod.

Eric Holder: “We can certainly argue about the way in which Snowden did what he did, but I think that he actually performed a public service by raising the debate that we engaged in and by the changes that we made.”

This comes as Edward Snowden is calling for an overhaul in whistleblower protections, after former senior Pentagon official John Crane has spoken out publicly about how his superiors broke the law to punish a key National Security Agency whistleblower for leaking information about waste, mismanagement and surveillance. Click here to see our exclusive broadcast interview with John Crane.