Snowden still being paid by colleges to speak.

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Last November, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden was beamed in from somewhere in Russia to address a crowd of Ohio State University students.

“Democracy only works for all of us when we all work to uphold the system,” Snowden, appearing on a giant video screen, told the sold-out crowd of about 1,700. “The letters of the constitution are not going to jump off the page and protect your rights. People give those letters strength.”

The university paid $30,000 through an American speakers’ bureau to digitally host Snowden, one of his largest known contracts to date, according to documents obtained by Yahoo Finance. The Ohio State event was one of a series of speeches that have netted Snowden — who is still a fugitive in the eyes of the U.S. government — well over $200,000 in the past two years, as Yahoo News first reported last year. He has continued to give paid speeches, including at U.S. colleges, in 2017.

The ongoing speaking contracts come at a time when Snowden’s fate and influence are more uncertain than ever. A campaign by Snowden’s supporters to win him a pardon was rebuffed by the outgoing Obama White House, and new President Donald Trump previously labeled him a “terrible traitor.”

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