Someone check to see if there is ice skating happening in Hades, because for once I actually agree with former Attorney General Eric Holder.

While the world was focused on who’s to blame for the death of a gorilla in a Cincinnati zoo, Holder used a CNN/University of Chicago podcast to claim that Edward Snowden performed a “public service” by shedding light upon National Security Administration surveillance techniques. “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,” he said on the “Axe Files.”

But that’s the extent of the Holder shoutout. He continued,

“He harmed American interests. I know there are ways in which certain of our agents were put at risk, relationships with other countries were harmed, our ability to keep the American people safe was compromised. There were all kinds of re-dos that had to be put in place as a result of what he did, and while those things were being done we were blind in certain really critical areas. So what he did was not without consequence.”

Holder is also not offering Snowden any carte blanche forgiveness. He says he should return to the United States to face the consequences of his mass leaking of classified information.

“I think that he’s got to make a decision. He’s broken the law in my view. He needs to get lawyers, come on back, and decide, see what he wants to do: Go to trial, try to cut a deal. I think there has to be a consequence for what he has done.”

Snowden, for his part, seemed amused. Safely ensconced in his asylum in Russia, he tweeted:

2013: It's treason!
2014: Maybe not, but it was reckless
2015: Still, technically it was unlawful
2016: It was a public service but
2017:

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) May 30, 2016